Add Jesse to the list of lefties who’ve called Republicans “extreme” or “extremists” over the last 48 hours.

(Politico) — Jesse Jackson said Friday that President Obama should have been “tougher” with Republicans and less compromising to keep the debt ceiling negotiations from reaching their current crisis point.

“He has a propensity to be trusting, on the side of reconciliation,” the veteran civil-rights activist told POLITICO. “He kind of underestimates how ideological these guys are and how determined they are to destroy him.”

Jackson criticized the White House for agreeing too readily to take items such as war spending, taxes on the wealthy and corporate profits off the negotiating table, so that the only option left was cutting programs that assist the needy.

As a result, he said, extreme right-wing voices have been able to drive the debate.

The former two-time presidential candidate blamed “the anti-Obama mania, the kamikaze guys who would take themselves down just to take him down,” as well as a fixation on states’ rights that he said was reminiscent of the Civil War era. But he also said poor and working people don’t appear to have a voice in Washington.

Asked about Obama’s reelection prospects, Jackson singled out one GOP candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, as giving the president reason for hope: “His biggest asset at this point is the tea party and Bachmann. These people are so very extreme.”