Let Barack Obama's open Illinois Senate seat go to Jesse L. Jackson -- Senior.
He has talked a lot of talk, to be sure, but also walked the walk for 40 years. Serving two years in the U.S. Senate would be a fitting benediction for a remarkable career anchored in the civil rights movement. In one stroke, it would seamlessly tie together the past and the future of race in America.
The eloquent Jackson would be in seventh heaven because Senators talk all day long -- with no time limits on speeches -- and some actually might listen to him. To completely enjoy the experience, he should promise not to run for office in 2010 and step aside for a fair race for an open seat.
Yet Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., a Democratic congressman from Chicago, is seen as a frontrunner to be appointed to the coveted open seat president-elect Barack Obama will soon vacate. The Democratic governor, Rod Blagojevich, will name his pick.
Governor, let it be the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- the older one, with tears streaming down his face on Election Night in Grant Park when it became apparent the dream of an African-American president was not just a dream anymore. Obama kept him at bay during the campaign, and this gesture would be a handsome one with more than symbolic value.
As history happened and moved like a mighty river on that November night, the veteran civil rights leader wept. Clearly, Jackson's tears were from the heart, not for the camera. Jackson is a consummate performer and preacher; we all know that. He has a theatrical personality and thunderous voice. Even his allies sometimes get weary of his showmanship, the limelight which goes with Jesse being Jesse.
Think back to 1968, to Memphis, in a modest place called the Lorraine Motel. Jackson was a very young man to be in the company of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Ralph Abernethy and other leaders in the civil rights movement. They had converged in Memphis to lead a strike of the city's sanitation workers. On that unspeakably cruel early April day, Dr. King was slain right there on the balcony. Witnesses to the bloodshed would never forget the sight of Dr. King's life brutally snuffed out and the sound of that gun.
Jackson has carried Dr. King's lifework forward. "Keep hope alive" was his chorus, and he actually did keep candles of hope burning in the face of skeptics. He has engaged in his own brand of diplomacy and made some regrettable remarks over the years. After 40 years, Jackson has passed through more than one wilderness on the rocky journey to now.
His relationship with the Clintons could open channels of communication between the new Obama Administration and the old Clinton guard. During the impeachment of President Clinton ten years ago already, Hillary Clinton called on Jackson to come and pray with her and Chelsea.
Jackson's son frankly does not have the stature to represent the state and indeed the country on the national stage. To have a younger Jackson and a younger Biden appointed to the two open Senate Seats would not send quite the right message. Both Jackson, Jr., and Attorney General Beau Biden of Delaware have won elections, but still both are sons of famous men.
The tears in Chicago came not from the young man in Memphis, but a seasoned elder statesman with a few scars. A man who knows how much the moment means, how high the price was in blood, how many didn't live to see the day that "We Shall Overcome" became a song about us.
Nobody has the authority and ability to keep that truth in front of the United States more than Jesse Jackson -- Senior.