A Prayer for Rev. Al

A member of Stone’s stable who stays at Stone’s Central Park South apartment in New York while working for Sharpton, Halloran — just before taking over the Sharpton campaign — had been managing the parliamentary campaign for one of Stone’s numerous foreign clients: the United Bermuda Party, a white-led party trying to oust the resort island’s first black government. Since Rev. Al’s presidential campaign is really all about trying to succeed Jesse Jackson as America’s premier black political leader, the installation of Halloran is thus an odd choice indeed, one that can be explained only by Sharpton’s dependence on the money funneled into his campaign by Stone. (Halloran’s wife works for the infamous Carlyle Group, the military-industrial-complex giant of which Bush père was a longtime officer.)

Stone has acknowledged that he “helped Sharpton” meet the 20-state, $5,000-contribution threshold required for federal matching funds. Example, according to The Voice: “In Florida, Stone’s wife, Nydia; son Scott; daughter-in-law Laurie; mother-in-law Olga Bertran; Stone’s executive assistant Dianne Thorne; Tim Suereth, who lives with Thorne; and Halloran’s mother, all pushed Sharpton comfortably over the threshold, donating $250 apiece in December. Jeanmarie Ferrara, who works at a Miami public relations firm that joined Stone in the ’90s fight on behalf of the sugar industry against a tax to resuscitate the Everglades, also gave $250, as did the wife of the firm’s name partner . . . Another lobbyist, Eli Feinberg, a Republican giver appointed to a top position by the Republican state insurance commissioner, also gave $250.” Hired guns for ultraright evangelical GOP Florida Senate candidate Larry Klayman also kicked in to Rev. Al. Similar patterns of GOPers giving to Sharpton and phantom donors have been found in other states.

Sharpton’s almost penniless campaign has been sustained only by money given or raised by Stone or by Stone-arranged credit with consultants — without which the campaign would collapse. The Voice alleges that Stone loaned some $270,000 to Sharpton laundered through Rev. Al’s National Action Network (NAN), and that Stone rang up $18,000 on his credit card for Sharpton’s campaign-travel and other expenses. In the wake of these revelations, the Federal Election Commission is about to consider whether the Sharpton campaign expenses picked up by NAN with the money provided by Stone, and other unpaid-for campaign services provided by Stone and his chums, constitute illegal campaign contributions, according to The New York Times.

The Stone revelations show that Rev. Al’s presidential campaign is nothing more than another scam he’s running on black Americans, one designed to undermine the movement to defeat George Bush. Fortunately, black voters aren’t as gullible as the cynical Sharpton thinks they are — they know an unprincipled huckster when they see one. Which is why Sharpton — despite the help from his GOP bedmates on which his campaign depends — has been rejected by significant majorities of African-Americans this year at the polls.