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September 12, 2005
Al Sharpton's dirty laundry
I came home from the laundromat on Saturday to find news cameras and trucks parked outside and Al Sharpton speaking in the next-door-neighbor's back yard. (Al's limo was double-parked in front of a fire plug.) The guy who lives next door is Al's attorney, a job that surely provides lots of steady business.
From what I heard while folding my laundry, Al was meeting in the back yard with nearly 30 black leaders to decide whom to endorse in tomorrow's New York mayoral election. As if it matters. Blacks here are in a pickle because the "black candidate" is last among four Democratic contenders. The leading Hispanic candidate, Freddy Ferrer, recently offended black leaders and gave up a large lead in the race with comments they considered insensitive. Freddy now finds himself neck-and-neck with some weenie. If Weiner actually wins, it will lock blacks out of City Hall through 2013, since Weiner would get the nomination as incumbent in 2009. Hence Al's having to chose between two evils: endorse foot-in-mouth Freddy or the loser "black candidate." (In private, Al calls African-Americans "blacks".)
The hour-long meeting was decidedly down-beat, since Bloomberg will crush whatever lamb the Democrats sacrifice. The most cheers were garnered when Al reminesced about the various marches he had done--"we marched on washington, we marched on Wall St., we marched on City Hall." The meeting started with Al invoking supporters to "maintain the Black-Hispanic alliance" and ended with Al's attorney charging his listeners to "stand with Rev. Al in supporting the black community" with "no dissent." Black leaders are great at organizing marches, but after blacks monolitically supported Democrats with "no dissent" for 40 years, what do they have to show for it? By contrast, Hispanics (who don't consider themselves in such an alliance with Al Sharpton) divide their vote and get kowtowed to by both major parties.
Throughout the meeting, I never heard it cross the mind of Sharpton that they might consider supporting the clear winner, Bloomberg--since, well, Bloomberg is a sort-of Republican. Better a lousy black candidate than a good Republican. This is how we get stuck with mayors like John Street, Harold Washington, and the numbskull who runs New Orleans. The discussion was which evil to choose of many, which candidate to endorse while holding a giant clothes-pin over one's nose. At least Freddy can gloss over Al's many reservations and trumpet the endorsement on his website.
Incidentally, Al urged his supporters "not to talk to the media outside." Too late. After I told the press corps that the meeting was occuring in the back yard, they giddily set-up listening devices and heard the whole thing first-hand. No wonder some blacks hate whites in Harlem.
Posted by adrianjo at September 12, 2005 07:37 AM