Sharpton seeks deal to end his candidacy

The Rev. Al Sharpton wants Sen. John Kerry to adopt an ''urban agenda'' and possibly help pay Sharpton's campaign bills.

The Rev. Al Sharpton may soon drop his long-shot campaign for the presidency, if presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry agrees to adopt a more pronounced ''urban agenda,'' sources in Sharpton's camp said. Sharpton confirmed in a telephone interview that representatives of his campaign have talked to the Democratic National Committee and Kerry operatives about how he might ''fold into'' a campaign to defeat President Bush.

<snip>

Sharpton would also like Kerry's help in retiring a campaign debt that stands at about $600,000, campaign sources said. The Brooklyn minister and civil rights activist, in turn, would attempt to steer his donors toward Kerry during the general election race.

Sharpton, 49, collected just 21 delegates over 30 primary contests, not enough to demand the pivotal role he had once hoped to play in this summer's Democratic National Convention.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/8120154.htm

My guess is that when the Kerry campaign was asked to contribute $600,000 to the Sharpton campaign, they managed to keep from laughing.

Barely.

LOL!!

Sharpton said he would also like Kerry to commit to hiring more minority staffers, to buy advertising and services from minority-owned companies and to buy ads on black and Hispanic-oriented radio and television programs.

That's fine, as is the urban agenda, but it is not Kerry's responsibility to pay for Sharpton's campaign debts. That is just ridiculous.

maybe he'll let Kerry borrow it. :-)

Sharpton could hurt us and he could be of some, although modest help.

don't know the specifics, but seems like something kerry should hear about and maybe accept.


the campaign debt is another issue.

I'm not concerned.

That works out to $30,000/delegate....not a good investment of Kerry's money, IMHO.

Kerry should articulate an urban agenda, but not because Sharpton is blakmailing him by threatening to stay in the race.

He makes me ill. x(

imo.

While I don't think Kerry should agree to pay Sharpton's campaign debts, that would not be unprecedented. Dean paid Moseley Braun's campaign debt (or at least agreed to pay her a "retainer" that most people assumed was a roundabout way of paying off the amounts she owed).

racially-charged accusations into the discussion.

$1000 per nite, & huge room service bills.

No deals with this scam artist. He has nothing to blackmail Kerry with. His shitty performances in the south and NY showed he has no constituency. He is not a leader of the "black community". I wouldn't even let him speak at the convention.

Here are a couple of stories about Al Sharpton that may bring some light into his true character, and may explain why he sees nothing wrong in exacting a payoff (extortion?) to drop out of the race.

A Bush Covert Operative Takes Over Al Sharpton's Campaign
Sleeping With the GOP
by Wayne Barrett with special reporting by Adam Hutton and Christine Lagorio
February 5th, 2004 8:20 AM

Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton.

Though Stone and Sharpton have tried to reduce their alliance to a curiosity, suggesting that all they do is talk occasionally, a Voice investigation has documented an extraordinary array of connections. Stone played a pivotal role in putting together Sharpton's pending application for federal matching funds, getting dollars in critical states from family members and political allies at odds with everything Sharpton represents. He's also helped stack the campaign with a half-dozen incongruous top aides who've worked for him in prior campaigns. He's even boasted about engineering six-figure loans to Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN) and allowing Sharpton to use his credit card to cover thousands in NAN costs—neither of which he could legally do for the campaign. In a wide-ranging Voice interview Sunday, Stone confirmed his matching-fund and staffing roles, but refused to comment on the NAN subsidies.

Sharpton denounced the Voice's inquiries as "phony liberal paternalism," insisting that he'd "talk to anyone I want" and likening his use of Stone to Bill Clinton's reliance on pollster Dick Morris, saying he was "sick of these racist double standards." He did not dispute that Stone had helped generate matching contributions and staff the campaign. Asked about the Stone loans, he conceded that he "asked him to help NAN," but attributed the financial aid to his and Stone's joint "fight against the Rockefeller drug laws," adding: "If he did let me use his credit card to cover NAN expenses, fine." The finances of NAN and the Sharpton campaign have so merged in recent months that they have shared everything from contractors to consultants to travel expenses, though Sharpton insists that these questionable maneuvers have been done in compliance with Federal Election Commission regulations.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0405/barrett.php

New York lawsuit winds down
Sharpton, lawyers guilty of defamation in Brawley case
By David Walsh
25 July 1998

Those who argue that the truth or falsehood of Brawley's claims is irrelevant, considering the legacy of slavery and oppression of blacks in the US, play a particularly pernicious role. Lying has never advanced any progressive social cause.

There is a connection between the lying, defamatory character of the Brawley campaign and the role of racialism. Those, like Maddox, Mason and Sharpton, who preach racial animosity and strive for privileges for their particular color or nationality must lie in their presentation of social life. Society is not a collection of warring ethnic tribes; it is fundamentally divided along class lines, between the elite handful who control economic life and the vast majority of working people. Racialists make things up because their conceptions do not correspond to reality.

Brawley elicited sympathy not only from among nationalists at the time of her alleged attack, but no doubt as well from among black people and others outraged over the nature of the crime. If there is something to be learned here, it is the real danger of reacting to such a situation without weighing the facts and making a reasoned analysis. Such an analysis implies having a perspective on society and an understanding of its essential driving forces. Figures like Mason, Maddox and Sharpton, and their counterparts of every color and background, are dangerous individuals. They play on confusion, ignorance and prejudice to advance their own reactionary political aims. The lesson is: beware of demagogues!

http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/july1998/braw-j25.shtml

he did to Pagonis in the Brawley case.

I don't have a link, but there was the store in Harlem that burned, due to an angry mob, & 1 or 2 people were killed.

Sharpton has quite a history that many have conveniently forgotten, due to his "amusing " performances in the debates.

One that says that 9.11 explotation by BFEE is OK and invoted the RNC to NYC to prance on Ground Zero when nominating the chimp. Screw Sharpton - brilliant orator that he is!

which I find hard to digest!

thats seems to be a ridiculous debt for the type of campaign that he was running. What ever happened to people dropping out when they run out of dough.

than Kerry could get caught in the campaign finance ethics investigations that Sharpton may have. I sure hope Kerry refuses. I also don't think it hurts Kerry if Sharpton stays in the race.

Fuck you AND your blackmail attempt. :grr:

paying off this campaign debt! :wtf: Clark also has a debt to pay off (I'm sure they all do) but he is not making a demand on Kerry for it, that's going too far. :argh:

He didn't carry the African American vote in his own town. I don't really see what he's got to bargain with.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, big guy...