Chicago Trib: Jesse Jackson family held Blago fundraiser Sat. night

If I had a million dollars we wouldn't have to walk to the store
If I had a million dollars we'd take a limousine 'cause it costs more
BareNaked Ladies, "If I Million Dollars," 1993.

The Chicago Tribune has more bad news for "Junior."

As Gov. Rod Blagojevich was trying to pick Illinois' next U.S. senator, businessmen with ties to both the governor and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. discussed raising at least $1 million for Blagojevich's campaign as a way to encourage him to pick Jackson for the job, the Tribune has learned.

Blagojevich made an appearance at an Oct. 31 luncheon meeting at the India House restaurant in Schaumburg sponsored by Oak Brook businessman Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich supporter who also has fundraising and business ties to the Jackson family, according to several attendees and public records.

Two businessmen who attended the meeting and spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity said that Nayak and Blagojevich aide Rajinder Bedi privately told many of the more than two dozen attendees the fundraising effort was aimed at supporting Jackson's bid for the Senate.

That meeting led to a Blagojevich fundraiser Saturday in Elmhurst, co-sponsored by Nayak and attended by Jesse Jackson Jr.'s brother, Jonathan, as well as Blagojevich, according to several people who were there. Nayak and Jonathan Jackson go back years and the two even went into business together years ago as part of a land purchase on the South Side.

Under circumstances never fully explained, Jonathan Jackson, along with his brother Yusuf, purchased a license to print money, called River North distributing, when in the 1990s they acquired the exclusive right to distribute Anheuser-Busch products on Chicago's North Side.

A-B had once been a victim of one of the Reverend Jackson's boycott drives. "This Bud's a dud," is what the Rainbow/Push leader said at the time.

Acccording to court documents, a still unnamed "emissary" for "Senate Candidate 5," since identified as Jesse Jackson Jr., had offered to raid $1.5 million for Blagojevich's campaign fund.

And if I had $1.5 million, I could be a US Senator from Illinois.

Oh, I have to mention this again. In Augut, Junior declared During "Illinois is America."

Technorati tags: politics Illinois Democrats Chicago Obama Barack Obama rod blagojevich Anheuser-Busch