Junior the informer--and some questions

In 2002, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. approached Rod Blagojevich to have his wife, Sandi, who is now a Chicago alderman and ward committeeman, named head of the Illinois State Lottery.

Sandi didn't get the job, and Blago told the congressman, "You know I was considering your wife for the lottery job and the $25,000 you didn't give me? That's why she's not getting the job."

According to news reports, Jackson began his work as an informer on Blagojevich and other matters after that incident.

Here's the part I don't understand: If all of this is true, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, then why did Junior aggressively campaign--more than any other candidate--to have Blagojevich name him as Barack Obama's replacement in the US Senate.

And where does the Blagojevich fundraiser held on December 6, which the governor and Jackon's brother attended, fit in?

Something's missing here, folks. It's like ham bone soup without the ham bone.

But that $25,000 figure is dead on, according to the Daily Herald:

In April, the Chicago Tribune reported that an examination of campaign donations to Blagojevich showed that three in four donors who gave exactly $25,000 received administration favors such as state board appointments or contracts.

It's also the same amount of money that figured prominently in the testimony of a government witness in the political corruption trial this summer of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

Ali Ata, the former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority testified that Blagojevich spoke encouragingly about getting him a job in his administration after he personally brought him a $25,000 campaign contribution.

As for Jackson, his family, led of course by his famous father, has quietly built a small political machine on Chicago's South Side.

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