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Ron Burkle is also friends with Bill Clinton and bailed Jesse Jackson's mistress out.

When an employee who had a child with Rev. Jesse Jackson left the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition for Los Angeles, a consulting job awaited her at an investment company owned by Ron W. Burkle, a friend of (Jesse)Jackson's.

A 48-year-old billionaire grocery store magnate from Los Angeles, Burkle also is a friend to former President Bill Clinton and a major financial donor to the Democratic Party. In 1998, Burkle and Jackson were invited to accompany Clinton on a 12-day trip to Africa. In 1999, Burkle co-hosted a party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in honor of Rainbow/PUSH award winners and Jackson's 58th birthday.

Ron Burkle, whose net worth was estimated last year by the Business Journal at $1.9 billion,

Looking Inside INdTV

Al Gore and ex-Stanford prof Joel Hyatt say their S.F.-based cable news channel for twentysomethings won't be ideological. But do the Democratic moneymen behind the venture know that?

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Among those most intimately involved with the project are a veritable who's who of super-connected Democratic donors and operatives, from INdTV's board of directors on down. Besides Gore and Hyatt, those directors include San Francisco investment banker Richard Blum, the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein; Ron Burkle, the billionaire Los Angeles investment banker and Democratic megadonor; and Ed Renwick, a partner in Burkle's investment firm. (That firm, Yucaipa Companies, claims former President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson among its directors.)

Indeed, perhaps the least publicized aspect of the Gore-Hyatt venture is where the money has come from. Securities and Exchange Commission records and other public documents suggest that a big chunk of the funding for INdTV is being supplied, at least indirectly, by ordinary Californians who probably have no idea that they are invested in the former vice president's next career move. That's because two of the six "beneficial owners" listed in documents filed with the SEC are private equity funds controlled by the Burkle and Blum firms, respectively. And each of those funds is slated to receive huge investments from the California Public Employees' Retirement System, a $160 billion public pension fund controlled by Democratic officials whose party and campaigns have been supported by huge contributions from Burkle and Blum.

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