Pelosi nixes Jackson Lee resolution honoring Michael Jackson Pelosi nixes Jackson Lee’s Jackson tribute

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, unveiled her proposal for the tribute at Michael Jackson's memorial service on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, unveiled her proposal for the tribute at Michael Jackson's memorial service on Tuesday. Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pelosi nixes Jackson Lee resolution honoring Michael Jackson 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Pelosi’s reasoning: She didn’t want to open up a congressional debate on the seamier side of the pop icon’s life.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for us to have a resolution,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference.

House members have had every opportunity to “express their sympathy or their praise” for Jackson, she said, but a formal resolution with debate on both sides of the aisle was a different story.

At Jackson’s Los Angeles memorial service on Tuesday, Jackson Lee eulogized the entertainer as “our icon.” She held up a framed copy of the proposed 1,500-word resolution praising Jackson as “an American legend and musical icon and an international humanitarian, someone who will be honored forever and forever and forever and forever.”

In her remarks to the throng of mourners at the Staples Center, the Houston Democrat, who is not related to the singer, recalled how Jackson met in her Washington office with 15 African ambassadors to discuss the HIV/AIDS epidemic and visited wounded veterans from the Iraq War at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“Michael never stopped giving,” she said at the service. “The king — yes, the king — the king stopped and said he cared about you.”

Pelosi praises him, too

Pelosi gave a more subdued appraisal Thursday, praising Jackson’s artistic skills in carefully chosen words. “Michael Jackson was a great, great performer,” she said, adding that his death brought “lots of sadness there for many reasons.”

The top House Democrat expressed sympathy over his death but not over Jackson Lee’s resolution. “A resolution would open up, I think, to contrary views (about his lifestyle) that are not necessary at this time to be expressed in association with a resolution whose purpose is quite different,” Pelosi said, explaining why she did not want to schedule the resolution for House consideration.

The singer was acquitted in 2005 of charges that he molested a 13-year-old boy. Those allegations, and his admission that children slept in his bed at home but nothing sexual occurred, have led some members of Congress to put distance between themselves and any formal honor for the entertainer.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., earlier this week called Michael Jackson a “pervert” and a “pedophile.”

Jackson Lee did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

richard.dunham@chron.com