Sharpton Wire

“ —he has the ear of the President of the United States, an equally remarkable and perplexing achievement for the former FBI asset known as “CI-7 Okay-Okay! Just don't throw me in the brier patch. The rest of the story roll-over  Let me axe you something.  Do you suppose Al Sharpton walked into the FBI offices one day and said, "You know, there's entirely too much crime being perped in this city by the mob; what can I do to help?" The ex-informant has been one of Obama’s most unwavering backers, a cheerleader who has nightly bludgeoned the president’s Republican opponents in televised broadsides. For his part, Obama has sought the man’s counsel, embraced him publicly, and saluted his “commitment to fight injustice and inequality.”... This radical makeover has brought the man wealth, a daily TV show, bespoke suits, a luxury Upper West Side apartment, and a spot on best seller lists. Most importantly, he has the ear of the President of the United States, an equally remarkable and perplexing achievement for the former FBI asset known as “CI-7,” the Rev. Al Sharpton. Or was it the more familiar "wear a wire and we'll go easy on you?" This was in the mid 80's when Sharpton was working cons like these:  ".... A 1983 FBI videotape showed Al Sharpton talking about laundering drug money with former mobster Michael Franzese, a Mafioso-turned-undercover-FBI informant posing as a cocaine dealer. Now you might think something like this might be bad news for a presidential candidate, but to hear Sharpton talk about it, there's nothing unseemly about it. [Source] Of course there's his inflaming racial hatreds at the risk of violence that spawned Tawana Brawley, and the Crown Heights riot of 1991, and a 1995 arson attack on a Jewish Harlem jeweler that resulted in 8 deaths, but the mafia money laundering tape was a prison rap waiting to happen. Of course none of this really mattered to Dem pols, whose water Sharpton was willing to carry. He  stayed in the 1984 Dem. presidential debates to the very end.    ”