Obama's Chicago Machine takes Another Hit

Former Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) conspired with his wife to illegally spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including $43,000 for a Rolex watch, home renovations, and fur coats.

Jesse and Sandi Jackson is Power, Greed, and Corruption Exemplified

Other expenditures listed by prosecutors include $10,105 on Bruce Lee memorabilia, $11,130 on Martin Luther King memorabilia and $22,700 on Michael Jackson items, including $4,600 for a Michael Jackson fedora.

His wife, Sandi Jackson, is accused of filing "incorrect joint tax returns" [tax evasion] with her husband for calendar years 2006 through 2011, reporting income substantially less than the amount of income she and her husband received in each of the calendar years, with a substantial additional tax due.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are trying to survive on food stamps in the aftermath of the Great Recession --- the Jacksons fiddled while Rome burned.

The former Democratic congressman from Chicago was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and false statements. He faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and other penalties. His wife also faces up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and other penalties. (Why would the fines be less than the theft?)

Jackson Jr. is expected to plead guilty to the charges of conspiracy, making false statements, mail fraud and wire fraud. In his statement Jackson says, "Over the course of my life I have come to realize that none of us are immune from our share of shortcomings and human frailties." He says shortcomings and human frailties, not betrayal and excessive greed.

Also in his statement Jackson says, "I fully accept my responsibility for the improper decisions and mistakes I have made." He says improper decisions and mistakes, not deceitful lies and theft.

Jackson also says, "I want to offer my sincerest apologies...for my errors in judgment."

Errors in judgment? A error in judgment might be farting on an elevator when you didn't think anyone else would notice, not buying a fur coat for your wife with someone elses money. The purchases they made were made between 2007 and 2009, so it wasn't just a one-time lapse in judgment, it was an ongoing criminal enterprise.

Will a judge believe Jackson to be sincere --- and not send him to prison for "improper decisions, errors in judgment, mistakes, shortcomings and human frailties"?

Or will Jackson do hard time for illegally spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including $43,000 for a Rolex watch, home renovations, fur coats and a huge array of other transactions?

Sandi Jackson's attorneys also released a statement saying she "looks forward to putting this matter behind her." In other words, "Let's just forget the whole thing and pretend it never happened."

Jesse L. Jackson Jr represents everything I'm against --- using power and influence for personal enrichment. Any "good" he might have once accomplished has been erased and negated by his greed and deceit.

And all the drama about his health was most likely just a part of the overall fraud when he got caught. He had just wanted to put himself into a more sympathetic and favorable light.

Former Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr is a fraud and a cheat, and he represents everything that is wrong with our congress today. Now he's nothing more than another episode of American Greed and a national embarrassment to his father. All he's accomplished now was just to provide Fox News with fodder against the Democrats.

It just goes to prove that, with Jackson's $174,000 congressional salary, combined with whatever his wife may have legally earned, that for some people "enough can never enough" --- and that power does corrupt.

And as history has shown, everyone in congress is most likely guilty to some varying degree of corruption.

"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become." - Schopenhauer