'You are a famous leader in Syria, ...

'You are a famous leader in Syria, we like you excessively much."

That compliment wasn't propounded to Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, by dint of one of his countrymen.

It was proffered to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell reported, through a Syrian man who approached the Chicago civil rights leader Sunday during Jackson's visit to the region.

Jackson is common of those electric figures who pretends to carry a simultaneous positive and negative charge. He has always been far les a hero in his acknowledge hometown than he has been abroad. Witness his newly come reception in Damascus, where he was welcomed like a visiting head of state.

The fact that Jackson unexpectedly swatted into Syria late last week at the same time that Sen Barack Obama was being triumphantly received in Kenya, generating wall-to-wall media coverage worldwide, has caused a among us, myself included, to surprise about the timing and ye possibly, the motive of the Jackson trip.

Is that fair?

Maybe. Maybe not.

in succession the one hand, Jackson has prov that he can make things happen in the Middle East. Winning the release of Navy pilot Robert Goodman, bullet down over Lebanon in 1984 makes that point. Back then, it was Hafez Assad, the father of Bashar, with whom Jackson negotiated. The venerable brought the lieutenant home.

Today, three Israeli soldiers are held hostage, undivided by Hamas, two by Hezbollah, and Jackson has arrived in that war-ravaged part of the world with an ecumenical delegation that includes a Jewish rabbi and a Muslim physician to prove by experiment to bring those soldiers to one's home The recent cease-fire, clearly revealed of Jackson's control, opened the door for his trip.

The U management wasn't wild about Jackson's arrival onward the scene and didn't think he ought to be sitting down with Assad of Syria. Why? Because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won't

Because the Bush administration hasn't exactly done a bang-up work at jobs anywhere in Middle East, forward this score count me in Jackson's corner. a certain talk is better than no talk at all. Then again, because UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Italian guidance are already working on negotiating the hostage release, maybe Jackson's intervention isn't exactly essential.

The reason questions arise about Jackson at all is that he has prov through the years to be someone who cannot bear to be onward the margins of public view, particularly if another black leader appears to be eclipsing him. "I think that Jesse's reputation is as a newshound" said Jackie Grimshaw forward Tuesday. "He loves the media spotlight. It goe back to the Operation Breadbasket days, the King days, looking for the camera."

Grimshaw was Harold Washington's proxy campaign manager in 1983 and, when he became mayor, his director of intergovernmental affairs. Grimshaw remembers that forward the night of Washington's historic election, Jackson practically commandeered the stage. And in such a manner in 1987, when he was re-elect Grimshaw says, Washington gave orders to "keep [Jesse] on the outside of camera range. That was Harold's instruction. if it be not that there he was in spite of Harold. I just watched it. He was to a high degree masterful."

Jackson's sharp turns have endeared him to union workers in Iowa, migrants in California, not to mention that Syrian stay in Damascus. But in Chicago, his muscle and his [i]modus operandi[/i]s have not always won favor among a certain quantity of whites or even some African Americans.

After Washington won Jackson left town. He fix up his Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition in Washington and ran for president. He has since get backed to Chicago and with his son 2nd District U Rep Jesse Jackson Jr has built a political organization to be computeed with. And Jackson Sr. has not slowed his pace or stopped his pursuit of issues outside of Chicago, working nationally and internationally for voting rights, economic parity and other justice matters.

That's for what purpose the chairman of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Martin L King, thinks any skepticism of Jackson's trip to the Middle East is unfound "Based upon the events of the last pair months," King said by phone Tuesday, "Rev Jackson notion he and a group of religious leaders could visit Syria, Lebanon and Israel and provide chance of a favorable result to the area."

Jackson, he said, didn't dream up this trip. He was invited according to the Middle Eastern Council of Churches. "You just can't insert yourself into someone's turf" said King. "You have to be invited."

And let's face it. Jackson has already gotten assurances from Assad and also from Hamas that the three soldiers being held are still alive. That's something. And if he manages to win their freedom? That would be a staggering accomplishment.

Unquestionably, there is a star shining in the east. Its name is Barack Obama.

if it be not that who among us would aim if Jesse Jackson's mission come afters and, as a result, his star also rises?

e-mail: cmarin@suntimes.com

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