Jesse Jackson" "Nuts" about Obama

(Originally posted at Indy's Hardball)

Folks, honestly... I don't have to make this stuff up.

Once again, the "Reverend" Jesse Jackson opened his mouth, forgetting a camera was running.

In a spot caught on tape by Fox News, Jackson said he wanted to "cut his [Barack Obama's] nuts out" and he accused the fellow Chicagoan of "talking down to black folks" by giving moral lectures to African-Americans.

Yep, that is what he said. Check it out:



A source said Jackson's quotes were picked up by a hot mic before an interview about health care in Fox's Chicago studio last Sunday.

Jackson, of course, spoke with reporters about his comments:

"Well, they were hurtful and wrong, that's the whole point," Jackson said of his words. "And when you make mistakes you should not equivocate. You should be quick to go into offensive and not try to be evasive. And if it was said to him personally or in some public forum it would be even more hurtful. In this case, my error was responding to a question before a live mic. And so when he does hear them they will not be helpful; they will be hurtful. We have a relationship that can survive this."

Rev. Jackson Wednesday afternoon issued a formal apology for his remarks.

"For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize," Jackson said in a statement. "My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal. I cherish this redemptive and historical moment.

"My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility.''

It gets better...

Jackson's own son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., released a written statement in which he described his father's recent comments as "ugly rhetoric."

"I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Reverend Jackson's reckless statements about Senator Barack Obama. His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee -- and I believe the next president of the United States -- contradict his inspiring and courageous career," the younger Jackson said.

The statement goes on to say: "Revered Jackson is my dad and I'll always love him. He should know how hard that I've worked for the last year and a half as a national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."

Oh yeah... Obama's National Campaign Co-Chairman... Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Gotta love the "keep hope alive" drop Junior put in there...

Jesse Jackson: once again, making this blogger's job a bit more easy tonight...