Politics continues to make me cynical

So Al Sharpton, you know, the guy I voted for, turns out to have been sleeping with the GOP. Or at least a few pretty icky Republican partisans.

The Black Commentator goes into the details:

The growing storm over his covert alliance with rightwing Republicans probably came too late to have any measurable impact on Tuesday’s elections, but the revelations are a deathblow to his actual goal: to become the recognized leader of African Americans. Although the story has been framed in terms of treachery to the Democratic Party, or as evidence of Sharpton’s visceral disdain for white “liberals,” the tale will resonate somewhat differently among African Americans. Sharpton comes across as a hapless stooge of the worst elements of the GOP.

Roger Stone, a millionaire political consultant who began his career as a 19-year-old Watergate dirty trickster, virtually took over the Sharpton campaign in the last quarter of 2003, according to reports in the New York Times (January 25), Salon.com (”A GOP Trickster Rents Sharpton,” February 3) and New York’s Village Voice (“Sleeping with the GOP,” February 3). Stone and Sharpton were introduced two years ago by Donald Trump, the celebrity millionaire, said the Times. Stone brought in Charles Halloran to replace Sharpton campaign manager Frank Watkins, a longtime advisor to the Jesse Jacksons, Junior and Senior, who resigned in late September. (In the Village Voice article, Sharpton says Watkins was fired.) Halloran previously managed the New York gubernatorial campaign of far-right billionaire Tom Golisano, on the Independence Party line. He also managed a mostly white, conservative party’s attempt to unseat the first Black-led government of Bermuda.

Stone provides “ideas and direction, while Mr. Halloran…does the front-line work,” said the Times. “In the attacks on Dr. Dean, Mr. Stone helped set the tone and direction while Mr. Halloran did the research. Mr. Halloran came up with Dr. Dean's hiring record as governor, for example, aides to Mr. Sharpton said.”

There's more, oh how there's more.

I didn't comment on this earlier, because, frankly, I've been in denial. I gave my heart and vote to Sharpton, and he goes on sleeping with partisan Republicans behind my back. I been burned too many times by these politicians.

I guess what I learned is someone can have one hell of an appealing platform and be one hell of a great speaker and still be an asshole. And as the black commentator goes on, some good still came out of Sharpton's candidacy:

“Big Al” was truly large on the stage, a daunting deterrent to the intrusion of the usual coded racial rhetoric into the Democratic debates or on the stump: Don’t even think about it, said Al, without having to move his lips. Sharpton gave voice – at times, brilliantly – to the core progressive principles of the Black political consensus, causing big-footed white men to step lightly and in the right general direction.

Sharpton’s candidacy has had a magical effect on the racial chemistry of the Democratic dialogue, in starkest contrast to the White Citizens Council-type language of the GOP. He caused the white candidates to repeatedly demonstrate, through their words and campaign schedules, that they valued Black voters.

Well, there's always November. But I ain't fallin' love with any other Democrat any time soon.

(Link via Ampersand)