Jesse Jackson Praises 'Sister Hillary' Despite Slurs

The Rev. Jesse Jackson praised New York Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday as "Sister Hillary," after Clinton cited his efforts to overturn the presidential election by challenging the Electoral College vote in Ohio.

Speaking at his annual Wall Street Project fund-raiser, Jackson said "Sister Hillary" had been an important ally in his fight for those "traumatized by what happened to us as a people and a nation in Ohio."

He called Clinton "a light in dark places" who has "stood on the right side of history," according to quotes picked up by the New York Sun.

The praise for Clinton came despite a series of racial faux pas uttered by the top Democrat over the years, such as her slur last January against civil rights icon Mahatma Gandhi.

"I love this quote from Mahatma Gandhi - who ran a gas station down in St. Louis for a couple of years," Clinton told a St. Louis fund-raiser. Pointing to the audience, she added: "Mr. Gandhi - do you still go down to the gas station? A lot of wisdom comes out of that gas station."

A few months before that, "Sister Hillary" slipped again, saying in a speech televised on C-SPAN she was "grateful" to have grown up in the "white suburbs."

Republicans had idealized "the 1950s white suburbs for family life," Sister Hillary explained, "which I grew up in and write about in my book – and am very grateful for."

She was also silent when videotape emerged in 2001 showing Roger Clinton repeatedly using the N-word during a police surveillance operation.

"Some junior high n****r kicked Steve's ass while he was trying to help his brothers out; junior high or sophomore in high school," Sister Hillary's in-law explained. "Whatever it was, Steve had the n****r down. However it was, it was Steve's fault. He had the n****r down, he let him up. The n****r blindsided him."

During a 1996 speech to Emily's List, "Sister Hillary" raised eyebrows when she adopted what the Los Angeles Times described as "a mock black accent" to poke fun at San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Brown's spokesman told the paper that the mayor wouldn't be offended as long as Clinton meant it in good fun.

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