The Rev. AL SHARPTON, who announced his bid for president on Saturday, decries his fellow Democrats for allying too closely with Republicans in a speech in Cambridge on Monday.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who announced on Saturday that he will vie for the presidency in 2004, decried both major political parties in a speech on Monday sponsored by Harvard Law School (HLS).
Even though he is seeking a nomination from the Democrats, Sharpton criticized current Democratic leadership, including the party’s other presidential contenders. He said other potential Democratic candidates have allied too closely with the Republican party in the past.
“You can’t have a political debate when you agree with the person you’re debating,” he said. “Their voting records say that they sided with the Republicans, even with the tax cuts.”
In the culmination of his three-day trip to Boston, Sharpton spoke to a small but enthusiastic audience of about 100 at the Christian Life Center of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cambridge.
Senate Democrats running or considering a presidential bid include John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.). And the party’s Senate leader, Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), announced that he would not be seeking nomination yesterday.
On Monday, Sharpton criticized Daschle’s response to Republican leader Trent Lott’så (R-Miss.) comments at a birthday celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.).
Sharpton called Daschle’s acceptance of Lott’s subsequent apology “a morally cowardly act.”
Sharpton also said party leaders were slow to condemn Lott’s comments.
“Everyone else was silent and waiting on public opinion, but morality does not go by polls,” he said.
If Lott had his way, Sharpton added, “Condoleezza Rice would still be sitting at the back of the bus and Colin Powell would have been sleeping in segregated barracks.”
The activist and civil rights leader urged Senate Democrats to call for Lott’s censure when the 108th Congress convened yesterday.
“If there is a real level of moral and political courage, then when the Senate is sworn in, the Democratic senators, led by Daschle, ought to call for a vote of censure on Trent Lott,” he said.
Democrats did not take any such action yesterday.
Sharpton also criticized Edwards in his speech.
“Edwards got rich fighting for regular people at exorbitant rates. I fought for regular people and went to jail and got sued,” Sharpton said, referring to the nearly three months he spent in prison for protesting U.S. naval bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
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