By Carbolic Smoke Ball Founder Emeritus, The Hon. Rufus Peckham - The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been a titan in the American sociopolitical milieu for forty years.  Like every titan, he’s been beset with sneering, green-eyed troublemakers whose sole mission in life is to destroy him. 

Take, for example, the whiners who bellyache that, contrary to Rev. Jackson’s claims, he was not on the balcony with Dr. Martin Luther King when Dr. King was shot. 

And this is a big deal – exactly why?  So, it slipped Jackson’s mind that he wasn’t on the balcony - sue him!  Things slip my mind every day.  Just yesterday I forgot to put out the trash and the recycling bin.  So, you see, being on the balcony with the era’s leading civil rights leader at the time he was shot - or not being on the balcony - is not the sort of thing one would necessarily remember.  As I always say: If forgetfulness were a crime, the jails would be filled with senior citizens, and prison rape would be a thing of the past. 

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Commentary by the Hon. Rufus Peckham

I am bursting with excitement as I write this! I am in Los Angeles today because I am coordinating tonight’s victory celebration for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel. I predict the Senator will score a decisive victory in today’s California primary and that we’ll have reasons-a-plenty to celebrate tonight. 

The Senator’s aides wanted the party to be held at the Beverly Hills Hilton because they claimed the “security” is better there, but I prevailed and the party will be here at the Ambassador. (I thought the Senator might enjoy being here because this is the same hotel where Nixon wrote his Checkers speech in 1952.)

Anyway, there is no necessity for “security” of any kind. Up and down the state, the Senator is beloved by everyone. Did President Kennedy have need of security in Dallas, except for one lone nut? The President was beloved by everyone except for Mr. Lee “I Hate President Kennedy” Oswald. I am happy to report that Mr. Oswald is resting six feet under the earth, thanks to Mr. Jack Ruby, so he will not be a threat here tonight. I gave the Kennedy people my word: if the Senator has any need for security at all, I’ll provide it myself. And you heard it here first.

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