Don't be surprised if you hear less from John Stanton out of left-wing media in the foreseeable future.
Why? Stanton's penchant for speaking candidly, as he did yesterday on Bill Press's radio show about embattled former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s resignation from Congress only weeks after winning re-election. (video after page break)
Press told BuzzFeed's Washington bureau chief of bumping into Jackson at George Washington University Hospital back in June after Press popped a hernia, Jackson telling Press he was "feeling a little under the weather."
"The last time anybody saw Jesse Jackson Jr. in this city," Press added, "and I didn't realize that was the beginning of a long saga which ended over the weekend when he resigned from the United States Congress. Why?"
Possibly not for the reason we've been told, Stanton said --
STANTON: Well, it looks like basically what happened is that there's the special investigation that's been going on into his use of campaign finance funds and it looks like that's finally caught up to him. You know, there's a lot of speculation within Democratic circles that this whole thing with him, you know, going to the hospital and going to rehab ...
PRESS: Because he's been in rehab, like, he was in GW for a while and then he went to some rehab thing and it was, uh ....
STANTON: Bipolar ...
PRESS: Bipolar ...
STANTON: ... disorder.
PRESS: Right.
STANTON: You know, but there's a lot of speculation that a lot of that may not have been true, uh, that he knew he was facing this investigation, that he knew he was going to be in trouble, he was looking for a way out potentially, uh ...PRESS (sensing trouble in conversation): He said in his statement he's cooperating with federal authorities in this criminal investigation. What are they investigating? What alleged ...?
STANTON: It's a little unclear to me exactly what it is they're looking at. I, you know, there's been talk that he was, you know, inappropriately using funds from his campaign, things like that. And, you know, he, not only did he say he was investigated, he more or less copped to it right in his letter, you know, he said I've made a lot of mistakes, you know, I hope that I'm not remembered for that but I'm remembered for ...
PRESS: The good things that I've done ...
STANTON: ... yeah, and you know, it's a little sad. You know, I mean, you know, you see a lot of these guys go down and they sort of give these terse little statements or whatever and, you know, you look at his statement and it really was this sort of apology almost to his constituents.
Just about the last place you'd expect speculation along these lines -- aside from MSNBC -- but intriguing nonetheless.
