One Black Guy's Opinion on Al Sharpton (NY TIMES THING)

[economic justice]

Let me say loudly:

Al Sharpton IS NOT my "leader"........

Black "leader"??? What a joke! I am a big Harold Ford backer and I honestly believe the Harold Ford's are the future of blacks in the party - NOT the Al Sharptons!

This article is one more reason why I despise the shyster...

While the Rev. Al Sharpton has struggled to raise contributions for his longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign has paid thousands of dollars for him to stay in luxury hotels and to travel around the country with his own personal filmmaker.

snip

Even as the campaign awaits word from the Federal Election Commission on whether it will be certified for matching money — which would mean an infusion of more than $100,000 from taxpayers — a review of the candidate's most recent campaign report, filed in September, shows it is marked by oversights, errors and potential violations.

snip

In many ways, the campaign parallels Mr. Sharpton's personal and professional lives when it comes to finances, according to court, New York State and New York City records. Besides disclosing a history of staying in expensive hotels, flying first class and relying on limousine services, though, such records also reveal a series of judgments, lawsuits and tax debts.

snip

But while the campaign has struggled to raise money, collecting $284,000 by September, Mr. Sharpton chose to stay in luxury hotels like the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, a European-style hotel with antiques and private balconies, and the Mandarin Oriental in Miami, on Biscayne Bay. Most candidates stay in more modest hotels to hold expenses down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/10/politics/campaigns/10SHAR.html?pagewanted=all&position=

[windansea]

1. good for you

Harold Ford is a rising star!

:kick:

[AP]

2. If Sharpton stayed in motel, can you imagine the way the press would

present that?

Perhaps you'd like him to dress poorly too, and use cheaper product on his hair?

[economic justice]

4. I'm Curious...

Did you READ the story? It's more than his thing for expensive hotels. The guy is simply a religious huckster. A phony. Always has been. It's no different now that he's running for president(!)....same ole Reverend Al.

[JVS]

5. I'm not following you on this, how would the press present that?

Would Sharpton be blasted for staying at Motel 6 or Holiday inn?

[economic justice]

6. Luxury hotels are in a class by themselves

The choice isn't the Four Seasons in LA or Motel 6. Rev. Al is just being Rev. Al.......the other candidates would be crucified for doing this,Sharpton just thinks he can get away with it. The guy is no fountain of virtue.

[JVS]

8. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what the other poster meant.

[AP]

10. I bet the word 'ghetto' would appear in the stories.

[Clark4VotingRights]

3. I tend to be skeptical when the NY times finds something fit to print.

Granted there aren't too many 'Merkan newspapers I trust. But aside from a couple of their op-ed columnists, the NY Time's isn't credible to me.

[economic justice]

7. Only at DU

Only at DU would the New York Times be called a conservative paper. I've read it here many a time. The story about Sharpton speaks for itself and Al's got to explain some of his dirty past. Democrats should be ashamed this huckster is even in the race....especially black Democrats....in my opinion, of course.

[AP]

11. Not true. Wen Ho Lee might call the NYT a conservative paper.

There's a book out be an African journalist which argues that the NYT has had a very conservative African agenda for 50 years now.

What's your problem with Sharpton. He's not going to get the nomination, yet he says some of the smartest things anyone says in the debates. He was also particularly stellar at the AZ debates. Appreciate him for that.

[Clark4VotingRights]

13. Ah yes, the Wen Ho Lee disgrace. So many NY Times disgraces it's

hard to itemize.

I'm listening to Rev Sharpton now. And he just drew a parallel
between congress's lack of recognition and representation for DC
in congress, and Strom Thurmond's refusal to acknowledge his half
black daughter for his entire life. The illegitimate child...
Speaking of disgraces. Haven't heard anyone else bring up the
subject of Thurmond's hideous racist hypocrisy in a debate.

The man's mind is awesome.

I don't give a shit what he's wearing or where he's sleeping.
I just want to hear what he has to say, 'cause no one else is
gonna say it.

(Oh, and BushCo regularly uses IRS audits to attack their enemies.)

[Clark4VotingRights]

12. The NY Times...Where to begin?

The newspaper that initiated the Whitewater attacks on Clinton,
continued the attacks for years, and after tons of money was spent
on an investigation that found zilch, they never issued any kind
of retraction or apology.

The newspaper that reported that George W. Bush would have won
the Fla recount over Al Gore.

...The NY Times is shameless.

Oh, and I don't think the story "speaks for itself."
I think Rev Sharpton speaks for himself.
I'm listening to him speak for himself in a rerun of the DC primary debate right now. And, as usual, he's making excellent points with
commonsense, eloquence, and wit.

I'm in no way ashamed to have him in the race, don't appreciate
the name calling ("huckster") on your part, and don't like
to be pressured to be ashamed.

I'll decide.

[Iverson]

15. What's liberal about a coup?

The NYT cheered the coup in Venezuela right along with the Bush administration. I saved the paper. Naturally, they had egg on their faces in 48 hours, but you'd think that an institution that relies on First Amendment freedom of the press would have a modicum of sensitivity to what is and what is not a democratic process.

The NYT stands for its bottom line.

[AP]

21. NYT had one of those pyramid scheme ink supply deals with Enron where

you sign the contract, Enron pays you millions, and they report the contract as earnings which boosts the stock price, which insiders sell to an unsuspecting market.

Remember the NYT's business reporter who jumped out the window? Well I might jump out the window too if I cared about integrity and the people who paid me were so incestuous with the people whom I was supposed to report on.

[Cheswick2.0]

16. are you black?

just curious

[economic justice]

23. Yes

Why?

[mattgunns81]

9. Al hates the clintons

The secrets efforts of Bill & Hillary Clinton to torpedo Sharpton and stop his run for President

Sharpton’s real views on Bill Clinton, and why he believes the ex-president has "duped" and "betrayed" African-Americans – Sharpton calls Clinton "America's first beige president."

Why Sharpton has threatened to "take out" Democratic Leadership Council - home to presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman as well as the Clinton-Gore party elite.

How the “New Democrat" house organs such as New Republic magazine have warned that Sharpton is out to "destroy" the entire Democrat party.

Find out about Sharpton's plans to encourage black voters to "divorce" the Democrats, and why the radical reverend bucks the accepted wisdom within his own community with repeated references to Bill Clinton as "America's first beige president."

[economic justice]

14. I've heard some of this....

Sharpton being taken even halfway seriously as a candidate for president is just laughable.

[Cheswick2.0]

18. why is it laughable?

[Cheswick2.0]

19. why is it laughable?

[Jerseycoa]

17. He has considerable charm and a quick wit

But Al's icon status during this campaign season has been more than a little amusing to this native New Yorker. :eyes: It's not entirely Sharpton's fault New York still has a white Republican governor instead of a black Democratic governor, but he sure helped.

[Clark4VotingRights]

20. Care to elaborate? Seriously, I'm not challenging you; I'm interested.

I'm not saying he's perfect. If he was perfect he'd be an utterly
unique human. But I like his brains and wit and observations.
And I dislike it when I see smears anywhere, whether it's in
the NY Times or DU.

And frankly, if a black man in this country gets frustrated as
hell with the huge deck stacked against them, and shows that frustration on occasion, I think it's pretty damn understandable.

[Jerseycoa]

22. Carl McCall

was running for governor as the Democrat against Republican George Pataki. McCall had been Mario Cuomo's State Comptroller and very respected statewide. This was the first time a black man was running for governor in the state. He actually had a shot as long as the AA vote came out for him. Sharpton didn't publicly endorse Pataki, but what he did do was hold a huge rally for Pataki in Harlem humiliating McCall. Sharpton's just not a nice guy at all.

[Clark4VotingRights]

25. Thanks Jerseycoa. I'll have to google that 'cause it's pretty disturbing.

Did he really back Pataki?
That's...
I can't even come up with a word.
I'm stumped.

[Clark4VotingRights]

28. From one of my few trusted sources (Joe Conason)

Al Sharpton, the Republicans' best friend, Part 2

"Jan. 14, 2003 | That D'Amato endorsement, and more
Several readers note that in fact Tim Russert did ask Al Sharpton about the Rev's 1986 endorsement of Alfonse D'Amato. Let's go to the transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: But when you endorse a conservative Republican like Al D'Amato rather than a Democratic liberal like Mark Green, people say you're nothing but an opportunist.
REV. SHARPTON: Well, what was the opportunity? First of all, the ministerial group I was part of had endorsed Mr. D'Amato in '86, and we did not feel that he was going to be a conservative Republican, similar to civil rights leaders endorsed Charles Percy, and some have endorsed other Republicans when we had problems in Chicago with Richard Daley when I was growing up in Operation Breadbasket.

...Everyone in New York knew that Al D'Amato was "going to be a conservative Republican,"...
Sharpton's covert relationship with the Republican Party didn't end back then. On election eve in 1994, he lent his considerable presence to a George Pataki rally at a Harlem church.

Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice, Gotham's greatest investigative reporter, reported certain otherwise unnoticed coincidences last fall when Democrat Carl McCall was running for governor against Pataki. (Making political history, McCall was the first black candidate of a major party to run for the state's highest office.)

Maybe Sharpton should enter the Green Party primary against Cynthia McKinney."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2003/01/14/bush/

WTF? Sharpton as covert Republican? Spoiler? WTF?

Well, this is significant and sinister.
Thanks for giving me something specific to look into Jerseycoa.

[Jerseycoa]

35. Did you click through to the Village Voice piece?

It looks interesting. Wayne Barrett. I'm reading it now.

Edit: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0237/barrett.php

[Jerseycoa]

37. Heh

God, I miss New York, bare knuckles and all. :D

[AP]

27. McCall's a good guy, but I don't think anyone really thought he had a...

...chance.

He had a bad reputation for a certain thing that was always going to be used against him if he got close to Pataki. Everyone in NY politics knows about it. Andrew Cuomo referred to it. I don't know what the Democrats didnt' want to beat Pataki, but when Cuomo dropped out, that was the sign the Democrats were not going to win.

Good Democrats I know who were involved with the NY legislature for a long time were shocked that McCall was going to try for Governor. They were all, like, "what about that thing?"

I'm sure Sharpton knew about it.

[Jerseycoa]

31. I'll take your word for it

I've been out of NY for quite a while. I do remember in the '80s when Sharpton endorsed the right wing Republican Al D'Amato, though, over the progressive Dem Mark Green in exchange for a grant D'Amato swung for Sharpton. If Sharpton knew about some scandal looming for McCall it doesn't follow that he would have backed Pataki for that reason. Sharpton's just not that clean himself. I don't pretend to know how his mind works or why he does half the things he does, but he's not the hero (at least in my eyes) that he is made out to be today.

[AP]

32. Yeah. To be clear:

I care nothing about Al's past. He's not going to get nominated. He's not going to have a huge impact on politics. He does what he has to do be a player in NY, which includes cozying up to Republicans (including inevitable winners like Pataki). I wouldn't do that. But I'm not going to deny the guy a living on those grounds.

I do like what he says in the debates, and I think there's an immense value to that. Appreciating that aspect of his persona isn't exactly an endorsement of any of the other shit he does. If he had a real chance at winning, I might be more critical of him. But he doesn't.

I'll be pissed if he ends up standing in the way of an Edwards victory in SC. However, after hearing what he said in the AZ debate about Edwards, I'm leaning towards thinking that's not in his plans.

[Jerseycoa]

34. Yes, but

"I do like what he says in the debates, and I think there's an immense value to that."

I just wish I could believe he means any of it.

[Jerseycoa]

33. I really like McCall

I don't know about what you are referring to, but I worked on his Comptroller campaigns. He's a real gent. Wasn't he caught up in the NYSE thing, though, more recently?

[SadEagle]

30. He held a rally for PATAKI!?

:wtf:

(That race is particularly painful for me, since 2002 was the first year I voted; I sure hope 2004 is gonna be better than 2002 and 2003 were!)

edit: Put a "!" instead of "!?" for the subject originally. Oops

[economic justice]

24. Please, don't

"if a black man in this country gets frustrated as
hell with the huge deck stacked against them, and shows that frustration on occasion, I think it's pretty damn understandable."

Oh, please. We aren't victims! Yeah...Poor, Al.....lives a life of LUXURY playing the race card all over America. The guy simply doesn't walk his talk.

[Clark4VotingRights]

26. Don't overstate things.

Young poor black men aren't targeted disproportionately by the American criminal "justice" system and the death penalty, and denied the right to vote when they're labeled felons?

Ed Rollins didn't admit that black voters were systematically targeted and victimized in NJ to successfully keep them from voting for Whitman's Dem rival Florio for Governor?

Black voters weren't systematically targeted and victimized in Fla
in 2000 to successfully prevent them from voting for president?

Then why did the NAACP sue Fla for civil rights violations?

[windansea]

36. just curious

who do you like for the nomination?

I like Ford a lot..if he was a bit older he could be a serious VP candidate

[jadesfire]

29. Harold Ford Jr.

IS ABSOLUTLY AWESOME!!! He is a positive leader, respected and incredibly intelligent.

good choice.

[shivaji]

38. Good post...I am looking forward to the day when race stops being

an issue, and is not an entry on any forms, press reports, society pages or for that matter anywhere. As Dr. King said, "let a person not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the strength of his/her character".

[Jerseycoa]

39. Hear! Hear!

:toast: