JJ Is Candidate 5?

I'm not sure I buy this. I thought that prior to this, Jesse Jackson Jr. had eyes on the Mayor's office. I'd say that maybe this alleged emissary is from Mayor Daley's camp trying to get Jackson the job so that he doesn't end up battling him for his job next time around.

Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., long seen here as someone who was willing, even happy, to clash with this city's old power structure, found himself tangled up on Wednesday in the fallout from the arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois — now a symbol of that old, unseemly political way.

Jackson was described in an affidavit filed in Blagojevich's arrest as one of at least six people being considered by the governor to fill President-elect Barack Obama's unfinished term in the United States Senate in exchange for money or a new job.

Specifically, federal authorities said, Jackson is "Senate Candidate 5," associates of whom, the governor said in a wire-tapped conversation, were willing to raise money for Blagojevich in exchange for the seat.

Jackson, an ambitious Democrat elected to Congress 13 years ago and the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, made a defiant appearance before reporters in Washington on Wednesday, denying unequivocally that he had offered Blagojevich anything in exchange for the Senate seat or had sanctioned any offer by an intermediary, as Blagojevich seemed to suggest in recordings.

"I did not initiate or authorize anyone at any time to promise anything to Governor Blagojevich on my behalf," Jackson said. "I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, to plead my case or to propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat, period."