Jesse Jackson & Mel Reynolds: 2 Peas in a Pod
by Jeff Davis
Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds, a Black politician with a sense of ethics notoriously elastic even by Congressional standards, to his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s payroll. Reynolds was among the 176 thieves, swindlers and assorted scoundrels who reaped the benefit of President Bill Clinton’s last-minute orgy of pardons before he and Hillary left the White House in January of 2001, leaving the premises trashed and a number of valuables such as silver items and tea services missing.
While Clinton was in a signing mood, Mel Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lies to the Federal Election Commission. He was also sentenced to five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer. One website notes “In one tape, Reynolds asks Heard to describe sex with her lesbian lover, then asks if he can join Heard in bed with ‘Theresa,’a fictitious 15-year-old Catholic-school girl, whom Heard invented apparently to tempt Reynolds. At one point he begs her to provide lewd photos of the girl… Reynolds says on the tapes, ‘a Catholic. […] Did I win the Lotto?’ “
This is a typically American scenario. An ex-congressman, convicted thief and sex criminal all rolled into one sordid individual wins clemency and an undeserved pardon from a president. The Democrat Party desperately needs the Black vote, and this was almost certainly the reason why Bill Clinton gave Reynolds a pardon. Either that or perhaps Reynolds spotted Clinton at an earlier orgy and was in a position to blackmail him.
Mel’s new employer, the “Reverend” Jesse Jackson may have hired him so that Jesse would look good by comparison. Congressman Paul Craig Roberts described Jesse and his business practices: “Jesse Jackson is a fraud, and so is his ‘civil rights’ cause. It has come to light that the pious reverend has a mistress and an illegitimate… daughter. This came as a shock to his wife and legitimate children, but it is the least of the reverend’s shortcomings. Jesse has turned civil rights into a protection racket… Civil-rights leaders have mastered the art of the shakedown. They sell protection to corporations and politicians. In effect, civil-rights leaders tell corporations that in exchange for contributions, they won’t organize a boycott of the corporation’s products or bring a civil-rights lawsuit. They tell politicians that in exchange for racial preferences and easy access to class-action lawsuits, they won’t call the politician a racist and organize a riot in his district… Politicians know, too, that the powerful victims groups stick together. If blacks get on your case, the feminist, and homosexual lobbies won’t be far behind.”