Village Voice: Republican operative running Sharpton's campaign

[Carl Spackler]

"Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton."

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0405/barrett.php



edited to comply with regulations 977a (excessive capitalization) and 1044f (extraneous punctuation)

[cjbuchanan]

1. More at Salon

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/03/sharpton/index.html

Whatever excuse each man offers to justify their embarrassing embrace, Stone certainly serves the Republican party by sustaining and promoting Sharpton. Ever since the reverend announced his candidacy, right-leaning commentators have gleefully predictedthat he will pose "a major threat" to the Democrats in 2004. For Sharpton himself, the attraction of endless publicity (and luxurious lodging) remains irresistible, along with the opportunity to supplant his former mentor Jesse Jackson as black America's political spokesman. The Democratic Party, whose institutions and candidates he has consistently undermined for many years, is merely a convenient vehicle for his advancement.


The only surprising aspect of the Sharpton-Stone relationship is how brazenly the pair now display their bipartisan dalliance. While Stone quietly began providing advice to the reverend almost a year ago, his name surfaced last October when he showed up at a Sharpton birthday party/fundraiser in New York. That was not long after Sharpton campaign manager Frank Watkins, a former Jackson aide, abruptly resigned. In place of Watkins, Stone installed Charles Halloran -- a white, Kentucky-born political operative whose ties with the Republican consultant were cemented in 2002, when they worked together on billionaire Thomas Golisano's quixotic Independent campaign for New York governor. Although he is a career Democrat, Halloran has become professionally dependent on his connections with Stone. Last winter, his Republican patron obtained a lucrative job for Halloran in Bermuda, running the conservative United Bermuda Party parliamentary campaign.


Appointing the campaign manager only suggests how pervasively Stone influences Sharpton. His current role is even more crucial. An extraordinary investigative report by Wayne Barrett in the Village Voice describes in detail how Stone controls the campaign's staffing, financing, and often its message. In addition to placing half a dozen of his associates in the Sharpton camp, Stone has managed the successful solicitation of enough contributions to make Sharpton 2004 eligible for federal matching funds.

[bobbieinok]

2. if true, this is really disgusting

Stone led the FL 2000 Miami-Dade vote count/recount shutdown??????

[Laughing Mirror]

6. "A GOP trickster rents Al Sharpton"

is the title of this Salon piece, but I think the real title is "Al Sharpton rents GOP trickster."

In any event, Stone's got a lot of work to do raising money. There's what, five thousand dollars and change in the account, if I read the piece in Village Voice correctly.

[ugarte]

7. Who's using who?

Rev. Al is just playing his cards right now. He'll jettison Stone as soon as the Demos give him some love and a seat at the table. Come convention time, Rev. Al will be on board.

[Laughing Mirror]

9. Yep. Glad somebody understands who's

zoomin' who.

[Straight Shooter]

3. The whole idea was to help take down Dean

Stone is the one who advised Sharpton to ambush Dean on the lack of African-Americans in his cabinet. It was a valid question but framed as a sucker punch.

I completely lost respect for Al after learning Stone was on his team. However, I still respect the Reverend's issues.

[gWbush is Mabus]

4. WOW

I think I just lost ALL my respect for Al Sharpton.

[Uzybone]

5. Not suprising

Rev Al is all about Rev Al. In other words, he is a huckster.

[BigDaddyLove]

19. He may be a huckster........

but he's been fearless when it comes to speaking the truth about the Bush Administration.

[LoZoccolo]

8. There were people right here...

...propping up Sharpton's two non-sensical attacks on Dean: the Confederate flag (if you want to argue with me read what Dean said first, and post it all here as proof that you read it please otherwise leave me alone), and the "no minorities on your cabinet" (there were only six slots available, extremely low population of african- and latino-americans, plus they were offered but VT cabinet posts are not that attractive jobs - again, post the population statistics to prove to me you know what you're talking about before you go on about this).

So the path might have gone from Roger Stone to posters here. Good job!

[gottaB]

22. If I caucus for Dean

It will be inspite of his statement about wanting to be the candidate for guys with confederate flags in their pickups, and his gross insensitivity in the face of righteous outrage, shock, and pain. Not because of it. I will look at his explanations of his statements, the others stances he's taking, and the apology he issued.

One thing I will consider is whether I want to empower the large faction of his supporters who seem all to willing to forget that their candidate issued an apology, that he admitted that he had said something that warranted an apology.

Five days left to caucus.

--No. You just reminded me of why I cannot support Howard Dean. Thank you.

[LoZoccolo]

24. You didn't post the quote like I told you to.

I think you still have time to edit it.

[gottaB]

28. yeaaarghhh

You can always edit your sig to add that. I don't think the orthography needs to be IPA perfect. People will know what you mean.

The neo-condederacy and white supremecy movements are not to be taken lightly.

I am very well aware of what Dean said, to the Des Moines Register, and in his stump speeches; what his basic argument was; how he wanted that to be interpreted; what his various positions on the confederate flag have been; how he handled criticism of his statements; and what he said by way of apology.

Giving Howard Dean the benefit of the doubt is one thing. In fact I had been quite willing to accept his apology, and see the positive things he was talking about as reasons to vote for him.

However, the fact that many of his supporters continue to deny that he said something offensive and apologized for it shows me that his talk about racism has not been effective. If his most ardent followers aren't getting the message, what hope is there for the rest of the country?

[LoZoccolo]

33. You wouldn't be able to argue like that if you followed my instructions.

Which is why you won't do it. I gave you specific instructions - post the quote before you criticize it, and now, post the apology. And there was a reason for it - you're tapdancing around both and your whole argument rests on unfair insinuations. You can make it sound like he said anything when he did that. I invite everyone here to ignore it until you at least substantiate something.

[LoZoccolo]

25. Tell you what...

...now you can go find his apology and post it here too.

[redqueen]

10. And then there was one.

No longer will we see qualifiers (and Al) after statements about Kucinich's principled stances.

Sad. Why would he get in bed with republicans? Why?

[Carl Spackler]

14. I would speculate that it is because they're paying for the room

which is very too bad because I Sharpton's rhetorical talents could be so beneficial.

[stopthegop]

15. Sharpton isn't running for President..

he's running for attention...

[bloom]

11. uhggg

:(

[LoZoccolo]

12. That having been said...

...I'd edit your subject before this thread gets locked for being overly capitalized and/or punctuated because I think this is an important thread.

[beyurslf]

13. I trust the Voice.

A truly liberal paper that isn't afraid of the label.

[SOS]

16. Wayne Barrett

is one of the last true investigative journalists left .

[THUNDER HANDS]

17. this is going to severely hurt

Sharpton's seventh place standing in national polls. :)

[rucky]

27. and all African-American voters

[Freddie Stubbs]

47. African American voters haven't really embraced his canadidcy

He got 10% of the vote in SC, a state were African-Americans make up about 1/2 of the Democratic primary voters.

[messiah]

18. Who cares

as long as he is bringing up legitimate issues he's on my side.

[killbotfactory]

20. Wow. I never thought Sharpton would stoop so low...

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Carl Spackler]

21. In defense

Is this morally different than taking support from Monsanto or Nestle or other corporations with agendas equally or more offensive than the GOP? If so why? Was this maybe Al's only perceived way to get his issues in front of people (which he has, indeed, done)?

[Westegg]

32. ARE YOU SERIOUS????

THAT'S your defense? That's your argument? That's IT? That all you've got?

Oh sweet Jesus, take me now.

[Tinoire]

39. I agree. I have nothing against Sharpton for this but I am concerned

because Sharpton's run was helped by operatives who were interested in splitting the anti-war vote and preventing certain candidates from making a decent showing. World Socialist had an interesting article and analysis about this recently.

Go to Al's web-site. Impressive speaker but very, very light on issues and position papers. Al himself hasn't taken his run seriously from the very start. Same thing with Carol Mosely-Braun.

[dansolo]

46. Tell that to the disenfranchised voters in Florida

Al is a hypocrite of the worst kind. How can he denounce the Democrats for taking the African-American vote for granted when he is working with one of the very people who worked to deny them their votes in 2000?

[TacticalPeek]

23. Sorry, no pics (:-(

Dole adviser quits after reports of group sex ads

WASHINGTON -- An unpaid consultant to Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was forced to resign Thursday after two supermarket tabloids reported he and his wife had advertised for group sex.

Consultant Roger Stone was a member of Dole's "(Bill) Clinton accountability team," whose job was to point out inconsistencies in the U.S. president's record.

"We don't expect him to be associated with the campaign any further," said Dole campaign spokesman Nelson Warfield.

The National Enquirer and the Star said Stone used the Internet and a "swingers' magazine" called Swing Fever to find couples or single men to join him and his wife for group sex.

The latest edition of the Star said Stone and his wife, Nydia, a former model, used a Washington post office box number for an advertisement in several swingers' magazines. The National Enquirer said the couple posted an advertisement on their Internet web site with a revealing picture of Nydia Stone.

(12 SEP 96)
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsArchiveSep96/world_digest_sep12.html


Nydia, ah Nydia, the Tattooed Lady.

Or maybe that was Lydia?


:evilgrin:

[NashVegas]

31. Republican Family Values

all over for ya

[Timahoe]

26. Roger Stone a Republican operative is a stretch

He's more like a hired mercenary. He'll work for whoever pays him.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0ICQ/2002_Nov_11/94386525/p1/article.jhtml

[LoZoccolo]

35. Yes but who's...

...paying him in this instance?

[Timahoe]

38. That's the $64,000 question

because whoever is behind Stone had a primary agenda of taking out Dean in the primaries.

Looks like mission was accomplished.

[Mairead]

29. This sounds like a smear. Al has been fearless in pounding BushCo

And as to his taking a shot at Dean, so what? He took a shot at Kucinich, too. That's why they're called 'competitors'. Is Dean supposed to be off-limits?

If the GOP think they're using Al and are paying his expenses, then wow are they going to be easy to beat in November. Because the pummelling Al's been giving BushCo is exactly what our involuntarily-funneled-through-the-GOP money should be paying for.

[Freddie Stubbs]

43. Since when is digging up the truth a smear?

I suppose we should expect this from a right-wing rag like the Village Voice.

[Mairead]

48. That it came from the Voice is not at all probative.

Don't you know that?

[maddezmom]

30. hope this isn't true

:(

[Freddie Stubbs]

34. You can't believe anything you read from the right wing corparate media

;)

[mouse7]

36. This isn't the first time I've heard about this.

I wasn't going to post anything until there was more about it.

Too bad CMB is already out of the race. CMB was an excellent voice for African-Americans in the political process. She made a couple of mistakes, but she NEVER would have stooped this low.

[OneBlueSky]

37. according to the NY Post, Rev. Al is also paying himself . . .

handsomely from his campaign funds . . .

Donors' $$ pays Rev. Al
by Brian Blomquist
February 3, 2004

WASHINGTON - The Rev. Al Sharpton paid himself $31,243 from his nearly broke presidential campaign and he's owed another $105,800 in unspecified reimbursement expenses, according to his latest campaign finance report.

(snip)

The reports of the big bucks paid and owed to Sharpton comes on the heels of earlier disclosures in The Post that the campaign had paid thousands of dollars for swank high-priced hotels around the country, including the Four Seasons in Los Angeles, the Phoenician in Arizona, the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, and the Mandarin Oriental and The Delano hotel in Miami.

- more . . .

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/17185.htm

[Cheswick2.0]

40. I give up

I have supported and defended this man forever on DU. I signed up at his web site and never got so much as an e-mail. Now I know his only purpose was to "Stop Dean". That's it for me, no more benefit of the doubt for Rev Al.

[Dover]

41. Interesting timing....this coming out just days before the S.C. primary.

It could certainly help consolidate the black vote behind Kerry...

Damning to Sharpton, nonetheless.

[Freddie Stubbs]

42. Village Voice = Right Wing News Source?

This isn't a paper that has a history of a right wing agenda.

[mzmolly]

44. OMG. I knew something was up with Sharpton.

:eyes: @#**&^$

Yea, tell me the RW wasn't afraid of Dean. They had Democrats helping with the take down...

[Freddie Stubbs]

45. It might just be that the Republicans realize that sharing a stage with

someone like Al Sharpton diminishes the stature of all of the Democratic candidates.