The shooting of Laquan McDonald and the subsequent delay and alleged cover-up of the incident have provoked calls for Mayor Emanuel to resign.  But what is most interesting is how this plays into the jostling for political power going on among President Obama; Mayor Emanuel; Jesse Jackson, Sr.; Hillary Clinton; and Obama's Justice Dept.

It's very interesting to note that all of the major players in Washington now have Chicago connections and Chicago-based interpersonal issues.  Jesse Jackson, Sr. ran for president and failed.  He was dismayed that Barack Obama was able to garner so much political and media support so quickly.  He didn't feel that Obama had earned the political recognition that he, Jesse Sr., had earned through decades of civil rights participation and activism.

This resentment of Barack was accidentally revealed when Jesse Sr. was heard to say, through a microphone he didn't know was live, of Obama, "I'd like to cut his ____ off."  No doubt Barack heard this and resented it.  This is why the night Obama won the presidential election, Jesse Sr. was not invited to sit on the stage.  He had to stand in the crowd at Grant Park along with all the other political nobodies.  Obama later used his Justice Department to squash the political career of Jesse's son, Jesse Jr., who was convicted by Obama's Justice Department of keeping campaign funds for personal use and sent to prison.

Rahm Emanuel is also tied to Barack Obama since he served as the White House chief of staff under Obama.  He also knows Hillary well, since he also served while Bill Clinton was president.  After the shooting video was revealed, Jesse Sr. seized the opportunity to make Mayor Emanuel look bad by instigating marches and demonstrations in downtown Chicago.  This led to the calls for Mayor Emanuel to resign.  This is just fine with the Jacksons, since someday Jesse Jr. would like to run for mayor of Chicago.

Jesse Jr. was also implicated in the actions, tape-recorded by the FBI, of Governor Blagojevich to sell Obama's open Senate seat.  Jesse Jr. was known to want that seat, since it would put him on the national political scene.  Someday, both Jacksons hoped, Jesse Jr. could then run for president.

But since Obama's Justice Dept. put Jesse Jr. into federal prison, those plans were abandoned.  However, there is still hope among the Jacksons that Jesse Jr. may become mayor of Chicago.  At the same time, there is belief that Mayor Emanuel may someday run for president.  If Jesse Sr. can force him to resign, through the use of Black Lives demonstrators – the way he forced some corporate executives to resign years ago – then Rahm's political ambitions will be crushed, opening the door for Jesse Jr. to be mayor and stopping Rahm's national rise.

Hillary Clinton's role in all this is that she and her husband had, until Obama came along, complete control of the DNC.  Today she is not challenged as the DNC's presidential nominee.

President Obama can use his Justice Department to indict Hillary and destroy her presidential campaign.  So far he has chosen not to do so.  But his power silences Hillary from aggressively criticizing his policies.  This prevents her from distancing herself from his policies as much as she would like.  But then she risks the wrath of voters who see her as a knowing and willful participant in some of his worst policy choices.

She has put herself in a corner.  It's important to remember that all of these actors are from Chicago, which makes this sort of a Chicago political soap opera.  But this is focused only on Democrats, which is why media don't want to discuss it too much.  Ed Klein has done good work on these relationships.

President Obama is having the Justice Department investigate Chicago's police department not because he primarily wishes to destroy Rahm Emanuel, but to hold onto black voters across the nation.  This is just a continuation of his strategy to appear sympathetic to black concerns, as he did with the Ferguson, Mo. investigation.

If this is all beginning to sound like the Machiavellian machinations of the courts of the Roman Senate or Tudors, it's because it is.  What makes it more interesting is that it is happening right now; the dynamics are in play, and they are having an impact on who the leaders of the Democrat Party will be.