GOP AL?: There was a piece in last week's Village Voice detailing the connections between Al Sharpton's presidential campaign and some longtime Republican operatives, including the notorious Roger Stone.
The point of the piece, by Wayne Barrett, seems to be that Sharpton and the Republicans are intentionally conspiring to screw the Democrats out of the presidency. I think to come to that conclusion, truthfully, would be to give Sharpton too much credit. No, Al isn't turning GOP. But, I suppose there's some truth to the proposition that Stone's job has long been to attack Democrats, and that's what Sharpton's been doing for the entire primary season.
In all, it's part of the reverend's grand scheme to muscle himself into national politics by operating much the same way he has in New York politics for more than two decades- by trashing everyone else, and then crying "racism" when they even think of firing back. He's used this brilliant method to turn himself into a power broker in Big Apple politics- and cost more Democrats elections than you can count on one hand.
As I've said before, Al Sharpton's one and only reason for running for president is to promote Al Sharpton, mostly so that he can score himself a prime-time convention address. So he's going to stay in the race right until the end, and if he's kept off the convention dais, don't think for a second he'll do everything he can to keep John Kerry from becoming president. Because in Al's cosmos, politics are irrelevant- if you "disrespect" him, he'll fight back with all his might, and if he needs GOP operatives to help him, then so be it.