Sharpton Considers Running For President, Again

Civil rights activist-for-hire Al Sharpton is considering another run for president.

Sharpton mounted a longshot presidential campaign in 2004. He dropped out of the race after losing several state primaries and endorsed John Kerry. What an endorsement that was. Sharpton endorsed Kerry, but promised to continue his own campaign:

My campaign continues now to pick up delegates so that we can go to the convention to coalesce with other delegates.

A month after the '04 election we learned that Sharpton was paid $86,715 by the Democratic National Committee to campaign for Kerry and other Democratic candidates.

Sharpton admitted he was paid for travel:

"They asked me to travel to 20 or 30 cities to campaign, and I did that," Sharpton said. "What am I supposed to do, donate the cost of air fare?"

As usual, the Reverend Al wasn't being totally forthcoming. According to the Associated Press, Sharpton was paid for more than travel:

But records show that while most of the money was to reimburse travel expenses, Sharpton was paid $35,000 as a "political consulting fee" 15 days after the election.

Sharpton has about as much chance of being elected president as I do. Perhaps he sees another chance to make some money by shaking down another Democratic nominee.