By Michael H. Cottman

The irony of Rev. Jesse Jackson's stunningly vile criticism of Barack Obama is that while Jackson, a Baptist minister, scolded Obama for "talking down to black people," Jackson used the most graphic image of emasculating another black man to illustrate a point about politics: Castration.

A civil rights icon, a man of the cloth, a voice for the underprivileged who talks of uplifting black fathers, said this about a black man aspiring to become America's first black president: "Barack ..has been talking down to black people. I wanna cut his nuts off."

Tough talk toward the man of African descent who may very well be moving into the White House next year; a young black lawyer who is not only managing an unprecedented political campaign but is also leading a massive, national movement for social change.

Jackson could have chosen any number of insults -- if he had to go there at all -- to scold Obama, but he decided on the most humiliating of images to tear down a fellow black man who lives nearby in the same town of Chicago.
   
The minister who stood with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said he doesn't remember his exact words, but described his remarks as "regretfully crude." He was being interviewed last week about health care by a reporter on Sunday when he was asked his opinion about Obama speaking in black churches.

His inflammatory comment came in response to a question from a fellow guest during a break from taping "Fox & Friends." Jackson was talking to Reid Tuckson, a black executive with United Health Group.

Jackson, who called his comment "unfortunate"  said Thursday that part of his "anguish" was about "the limitations of faith-based programs" and Obama's insistence that black fathers step up and claim responsibility for their families. He said he was concerned about the "limited focus" on parental responsibility. "We all must share the values of responsibility," Jackson said on CNN.

Democrats told me that Jackson and Obama have never been close and some believe Jackson is jealous of Obama's political rise and his successful campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee for the White House.

Moreover, Jackson has taken a back seat to Obama on social issues and speeches on race and some say privately that Jackson wants to be the pre-eminent spokesman for black America but has been forced to play a supporting role on the national stage.

Some political insiders tell me that Jackson, the old school civil rights activist, is still steaming because Obama, the new school Ivy-League politician, never asked for an audience with Jackson to kiss the proverbial ring.

"What we're seeing here is an enormous amount of frustration expressed by him and others in the civil rights vanguard who are struggling to find relevancy in the 21st century," said Charles Ellison, chief editor for Blackpolicy.org and a political analyst on XM radio.

"They are feeling voiceless and pushed to the sidelines by this 'new school' Black politics personified by Obama and others," he said. "Jackson has only given lukewarm support for Sen. Obama, at best, and much of that is due to very public and heated pressure from a bitter son and Obama co-chair, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr."

"One has to ask - why does he have a problem with Obama's reflections on Black men and fatherhood. It's not like he hasn't commented extensively on the same issue," Ellison added. "But, the problem is not so much with what Rev. Jackson's comments stem from - clearly there's a bit of serious political jealousy taking place - it's that he used one of the most vile and unseemly racist references to express it.  There is a very ugly and nightmarish history behind Black male mutilation, from slave punishments to Southern lynching mobs."

Even Jackson's son -- U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois -- took Jackson to task.

"Reverend Jackson is my dad, and I'll always love him," Jackson Jr. said. "He should know how hard that I've worked for the last year and a half as a national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."

Painful words from a son to a father. It's a shame that the elder Jackson put his son in such a precarious position, forced to rebuke his dad before an audience of millions. What's worse it that Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly said Fox is holding back on more footage of Jackson's comments that were actually too vile to air.

We may never know what other insults Jackson leveled at Obama, and perhaps it's not really important.

Just for the record, Obama has two young daugthers and is part of the same social demographic -- a black father -- that Jackson says he wants to spiritually embrace.

It appears that Obama, a responsible black parent, slipped between the cracks.