Seth Gitell
The Sharpton test
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | It sounds like the start of a bad joke. But Reverend Al Sharpton and Senator Joseph Lieberman, both presidential hopefuls, were spotted on the same plane travelling from Washington to New York City Sunday. Sharpton saw Lieberman sitting two rows behind him and said, "That's how it's gonna be when the votes are counted."
Both Lieberman and Sharpton were in the midst of their fledgling presidential campaigns. Lieberman was flying back to his home in Connecticut, where he announced the formation of an exploratory committee Monday, and Sharpton was returning from an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." Lieberman, I assume, already has a plan to deal with Sharpton. Because he's running for the nomination from the right -- as a "different kind of Democrat" who "won't be afraid" to agree with Republicans -- Lieberman will probably use Sharpton as a wedge against the other Democratic candidates.
But what about Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri, and Governor Howard Dean of Vermont?
The thinking, articulated by former Gore advisor Elaine Kamarck, on New England Cable News's Newsnight last night, is that the Sharpton problem will just go away. That African-American voters have "done their thing" with voting for a black candidate just because he is black, and that the debacle of the 1988 New York Democratic Primary that saw an ugly dispute between Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Gore, will not be repeated. Key to this analysis is the work of Democratic activist Donna Brazile, who is expected to refrain from joining a presidential campaign and work on neutralizing the Sharpton problem for Democrats. If Brazile can help organize leading African-American leaders, such as Congressman Harold Ford of Tennessee, to campaign against Sharpton in the South, the Democrats have a shred of hope. But judging by the turnout when Sharpton arrived in Boston earlier this month -- a poorly attended appearance that nonetheless drew most of the elected Black leadership, including Senator Dianne Wilkerson -- the Democrats have their work cut out for them in this regard. At this point, my money's on Sharpton.
Sharpton, after all, has more experience disrupting the political campaigns of white liberals and centrists than white liberals and centrists have in dealing with Sharpton. His candidacies eviscerated the senatorial hopes of former attorney general Robert Abrams in 1992 and the mayoral hopes of Mark Green in 2001. (His endorsement of Alfonse D'Amato also cost Green his Senate run in 1986.) In 1994, Sharpton took 25 percent of the vote against Daniel Patrick Moynihan for the US Senate nomination, and his 1997 mayoral run damaged fellow challenger Manhattan Borough president Ruth Messinger so badly that by the time she ran against Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1997, she got trounced. As he told me last March, he's got a fundraising plan and he knows how to live off the land with lots of free media. Candidates like Edwards and Kerry have never had to deal with the likes of him.
Here's where the opportunity comes in. Everybody says that Kerry is just another liberal from Massachusetts, that, despite his military service in Vietnam, he is indistinguishable from Michael Dukakis, who bungled the 1988 presidential nomination. For Kerry to distinguish himself and burnish his centrist credentials, he could be the Democrat to denounce Sharpton (as then-candidate Bill Clinton denounced Sister Souljah) for the Tawana Brawley affair and his role in fomenting the Harlem neighborhood prior to the torching of a Jewish-owned clothing store in which seven people were killed.
I bet Kerry won't. He's far too cautious to do something like that. Speaking at Yale in 1992, he called for some rethinking about
racial quotas and then quickly backed away when the remarks prompted controversy. But if he finds he needs to break out of the
pack, some strong words directed at Sharpton may not be a bad idea.
JWR contributor Seth Gitell is the political writer of the Boston Phoenix Comment by clicking here.
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