Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Chicago, accused Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson of cavorting with criminals, in a story that has, in a short time, already received as much play as a well-worn Elvis Presley record.

This is not the first time that Jackson has attacked a fellow Democrat who disagrees with him on his ambitious agenda for a new airport near Peotone.

In this latest barrage, Jackson accuses Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, of sponsoring an airport authority bill designed with elements of a “pay-to-play” plan hatched by convicted felon Anthony Rezko, a former aid to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Halvorson sponsored and pushed an airport authority bill – SB 2063 – through the Illinois Senate this spring. It relates to the Peotone Airport, or “third airport,” which, as pointed out recently by three eastern Will County Township Supervisors, would at the very least, be a fifth Chicago-area airport, if it is ever built.

There is little doubt that the accusation originated with Jackson, though its initial debut was in a Village of Park Forest online newsletter, as a letter to the editor written by Jackson aide Rick Bryant. Bryant also heads Jackson’s airport authority, ALNAC. Park Forest is a supporting member.

From Park Forest, Jackson’s accusation traveled through various news outlets, landed into the hands of Halvorson’s campaign rival concrete magnate Martin Ozinga, III, and made it all the way to the National Republican Congressional Committee. The story was even reported in “The Hill,” a daily congressional newspaper published while congress is in session. The story has now made its way to the blogosphere, so even if it dies in the real world, it can always be reincarnated in the afterlife of the Internet.

In the initial letter, Bryant said Halvorson gave into Rezko, on a plan that two years ago, Jackson flatly rejected.

Bryant defined the “pay-to-play” tactic as creating an airport board with appointed, not elected commissioners.

He wrote that Rezko stood in for Blagojevich in a meeting two years ago that Jackson was supposed to have with the governor. Jackson said Rezko offered gubernatorial support if the governor were allowed to make key appointments to ALNAC’s board. He categorized that as Rezko trying to turn ALNAC into a state panel controlled by unaccountable pay-to-play ringleaders.

Halvorson’s only response was to squelch the statements, claiming that not only was she not directed by Rezko, but she has never even met him.

When Halvorson pushed her legislation to establish a seven-member board to oversee an airport at Peotone, Jackson was eerily silent. Political insiders claimed that Jackson’s silence was a Democratic favor due to Halvorson’s bid for congress this November. And he knew there would be resistance to the bill in the Illinois House. To prove that point, in the latest media blitz, State Rep. David Miller, D-Dolton, a Jackson supporter, has picked up Jackson’s anti-Halvorson rhetoric by writing a letter to the editor of his own slamming the legislation and its sponsor.

Jackson’s effort to discredit Halvorson’s bill is working, by baiting her Republican opponent. But, that isn’t the first time Jackson has used the opposing party to do his bidding. Recall the late Henry Hyde, who Jackson teamed up with to support the Peotone Airport. By his own admission, Jackson had little in common with Hyde, except for support for Peotone. The pair were called the odd couple. Many wonder why Jackson would go after a fellow Democrat.

BUT JACKSON HAS A HISTORY of opposing fellow Democrats who fail to aid his obsession over Peotone.

As described in Jackson’s own book, “A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights” by Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. with Frank E Watkins, published Sept. 2001, Jackson relates to his first introduction to retired Congressman Bill Lipinski, a longtime Chicago congressman and ranking member on the House Transportation Committee. Jackson said Lipinski stepped forward to shake his hand just minutes after he was sworn in. It was 1995.

Jackson wrote that Lipinski offered to help him, but qualified it by saying, “But you’re never going to get that new airport you spoke about during your campaign.”

“He was telling me he could help me—and in the same breath vowing to hurt me,” Jackson complained.

JACKSON REBUFFED A WOULD-BE GOVERNOR, also a Democrat, who disagreed with him on the Peotone airport. In the 1998 Illinois governor’s race, Glenn Poshard was running against the Republican Secretary of State George Ryan.

He refused to support Poshard because Poshard was opposed to the Peotone airport.

“Not only would he not support it, he tried to embarrass and humiliate me by inviting the mayor of Gary, Indiana to Peotone — the site of the proposed airport — to an anti-airport rally.

Though he takes credit for Poshard’s defeat, by urging the people of his district to vote against him, Jackson has it wrong about Poshard and Peotone.

The anti-airport rally in Peotone where Poshard noted his opposition was organized by STAND with the help of former Peotone Village President Richard Benson. Poshard, like Gary Mayor Scott King and many others were simply invited guests.

... AND NOW HALVORSON, who represents a continuing struggle for Jackson. Not only has she stood in the way of his plan, but she has one of her own, that makes more jurisdictional sense. The battle between the two has been ongoing for some time. But Halvorson has raised the stakes, with her attempt to deal eye-to-eye with Jackson in the halls of congress. After all, she might just win. And the airport lies wholly in her district.

Jackson continues to try to blur the jurisdictional boundaries of Peotone. In past campaigns, his website listed Peotone among a list of communities in his district.

Finally, after numerous complaints, the site at: http://www.jessejacksonjr.org/

was altered slightly, but to the unknowing eye, could still be misconstrued to indicate wrongly that Peotone is in Jackson’s district.

Later, Jackson attempted to secure funding for ALNAC through a congressional earmark – an add-on to a federal spending bill – by claiming that the proposed airport would benefit Ford Heights, one of the poorest communities in the country. In a sermon-like speech to sell the need for the earmark to his colleagues, Jackson said, “Ford Heights abuts Peotone,” which is categorically incorrect. (see Rep. Jesse Jackson needs a geography lesson )

Similarly misleading, Jackson’s tactics to invoke the Rezko model in Halvorson’s legislation has put her on the defensive. Her airport authority bill originated long before Rezko was indicted. It grew out of close-door meetings of five mayors, to establish a governing board, just as with all public bodies.

Jackson’s real concern however, is that if the bill became law, the majority of control of an airport and its billions of dollars in contracts and concessions would fall in the hands of Will County, rather than with his non-jurisdictional ALNAC.

By Jackson’s own words, a new south suburban airport is an “economic linchpin in the rejuvenation of my community.” It would create 236,000 new jobs—up to 500,000 given the multiplier effect—and generate ten billion dollars annually for the Illinois economy.”

Jackson still stands by his desire for a new mega airport, despite the downsizing of the project. Even former IDOT Transportation Secretary Tim Martin admitted that even if the inaugural airport were built, he would never see an expanded airport in his lifetime.

In Jackson’s book, he claimed that a new airport was needed because air travel was expected to double by 2010 when there would be one billion passengers annually in the region.

IN HINDSIGHT, had Jackson worked with Lipinski all those many years ago on positive transportation solutions in his 2nd congressional district, rather than stubbornly continuing with a stagnant airport agenda in the distant 11th congressional district, perhaps the south suburbs would have been beneficiaries of multi-million dollars in investment. Jackson was alerted to the potential for improving the freight economy that same year, but he chose to ignore it. He was more concerned with an airport outside his district.

Ironically, time has caused companies like CenterPoint to move to more distant areas for which to invest, skipping over the south suburbs and into Will County, causing the county to prosper. Only recently has the south suburban leadership recognized the potential for freight development. Just last August a South Suburban Freight Study was undertaken.

Jackson takes credit for Glenn Poshard’s loss of the ’98 election. It follows that he should take credit for putting George Ryan into office. Glenn Poshard is now the president of Southern Illinois University, while Ryan is serving time in an Indiana federal penitentiary for felony corruption.

In the context of his meeting senior congressman Bill Lipinski for the first time during the first few minutes as a congressman, Jackson wrote, “’Politics was the code word for republicans and democrats. “Be a good Democrat” means even if something makes no moral, political or economic sense, just support it—“Be a good Democrat.’”

Perhaps this latest issue with Halvorson as well as Jackson’s whole obsession with an airport outside his own congressional boundaries is just Jackson’s idea of being a good Democrat.