Outside the Beltway

SHARPTON NOT A NICE GUY

James Joyner · Wednesday, September 10, 2003 · 1 comment

Mark Kleiman reminds us, though he may play a lovable buffoon on television, Al Sharpton is a rather despicable human being.

Slate thinks that fronting for Tawana Brawley’s false accusation of rape was “the worst thing you’ll ever hear about Al Sharpton.” [*]

I understand that Seattle is a long way from New York, but haven’t William Saletan, Ben Jacobs, and Avi Zenilman ever heard of Crown Heights? Sharpton’s anti-Semitic rhetoric helped incite a race riot — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say “pogrom” — in which Yankel Rosenbaum was killed. And since that foul murder he has done what he can to defend the murderer.

Or how about the Freddy’s fire, preceded by more of Sharpton’s speechifying about “white interlopers” and “diamond merchants,” in which eight people died? [*]

Sharpton is easily the most despicable major figure in either of the two major parties, and yes I do include Trent Lott and Tom DeLay. The fact that no Democrat can run for President without appearing in the same room as Sharpton is the only good reason I can think of for voting Republican. It’s not a good enough reason, but it’s not chopped liver either.

Over at Crooked Timber, Ted Barlow adds,

If you just manage to hang around for long enough in politics, you can achieve some kind of undeserved quasi-respectability. If Al Sharpton spent his time apologizing to his victims instead of demeaning the Presidential race, the world would be a better place.

Indeed.