Jesse Jackson Sticks Both Feet In Mouth

Jesse Jackson really stepped in it when he was caught off camera talking about Obama in derogatory and less than inspiring language. It turns out that the reports of what Jackson said were incomplete and actually worse than first indicated.

Jackson apparently uttered the word "nigger" in the course of his off camera tirade.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.

The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.

In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was "talking down to black people," and referred to blacks with the N-word when he said Obama was telling them "how to behave."

Though a Fox spokesman confirmed the TVNewer's account to The Associated Press, the network declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments.

Nice. Real classy.

This whole mess also shows just how resentful Jackson is over Obama's success thus far. Obama has succeeded better than Jackson ever could - and it's got to be eating at Jackson.

We've also got ourselves quite a double standard quandary given that Jackson has repeatedly questioned the use of racist and misogynistic lyrics in songs and other media. Yet, it seems that Jackson doesn't appear to have a problem saying them himself.

Is it possible that this goes back to something else I'd written; it's that it can be acceptable for African Americans to use words like "nigger" but white people can't. It was only after Jackson got caught saying these things that he's put out apologies.

Someone who truly believes that such language is wrong would not say it in the first place. For a change, Slim Shady Al Sharpton actually agrees: "I am against the use of the N-word by anyone and I think we must be consistent," he told The Associated Press. "We must not use the word.""

Jackson's time as a leading political figure came to an end a generation ago, but no one told him. It's time for someone to tell him.