REVEREND AL – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:   As we await the grand jury decision in the Missouri Michael Brown case, and as police units prepare for possible violence, we note with sadness the rise of Al Sharpton in influence in the Obama administration. 

"Reverend" Al, who I believe was "ordained" at the age of nine or so, is well known here in New York as a racial agitator of the first rank.  He was the proud author of the Tawana Brawley hoax; he helped stoke the Crown Heights riots, and he has made inflammatory speeches through the years.

And yet, it's being reported that he's helping to pick the next attorney general of the United States.  From Mediaite: 

Fox’s Eric Bolling went after Al Sharpton today for his tax issues that have somehow not stopped his White House invitations. Juan Williams agreed and went so far as to say it’s “insulting to black people” for the White House to be elevating Sharpton like that.

Williams suspected that the Obama White House just doesn’t like Jesse Jackson and since Sharpton is the only big alternative, the White House just “anointed him as their official black leader,” which people find insulting.

Bolling found some extreme irony in how Sharpton owes millions in taxes, but was helping President Obama pick the new Attorney General, who runs the Department of Justice, which oversees the IRS. Jonathan Hoenig joked that Sharpton’s seeking an audience with the president because he can’t get one on MSNBC.

Williams kept going after Sharpton, saying he personifies everything wrong about phony leadership these days, and even remarking, “It’s insulting to black people that he would be lifted up to that height.”

COMMENT:  It certainly is.  I fail to see how Sharpton has ever uplifted the lives of black people.  With his tax problems, his racial rhetoric, and his group-against-group mentality, he's certainly no role model.  But he is the kind of throwback to the 1960s who's popular in Obaman circles.  Of course, we haven't seen too much bother in the mainstream media.  But that crowd thought Wendy Davis was a great candidate for governor of Texas. 

It's time for black Americans to demand better leadership, and stop advancing these public embarrassments.

And Sharpton should pay what he owes.

November 24, 2014