WASHINGTON POST Column: …A quarter-century ago, Sharpton burst onto the national scene as the mouthpiece for Tawana Brawley, a black teenager from Upstate New York who falsely claimed that she had been raped by white men. His image worsened a few years later when Jewish leaders in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, accused him of inflaming anti-Semitism. Then came the 1995 Harlem protest at which he called a Jewish landlord a “white interloper” — followed by an attack on the landlord’s store that left eight people dead.
Now Sharpton is arguably the most prominent civil rights figure in the country. Without question, he is a kingmaker in Democratic politics. Gone are the polyester sweatsuit and gold medallion of yore, replaced by gray business suits on a Sharpton who has shed dozens of pounds. These days he carries both a BlackBerry and an iPhone as he hustles about midtown Manhattan. His three-hour daily radio show, ending at 4 p.m., gives him only two hours to prepare for television at 6. …
The reverend is basking in the applause. “I was born with Broadway lights as a backdrop,” Sharpton told me. His model is less Jesse Jackson than it is Glenn Beck. Sharpton told me he’s aiming to do “exactly what Beck did,” using his media platform to rally people… (more)
