Well, at least for one wealthy individual -- himself.

Big corporations give him money. Presidential candidates seek his endorsement. He has influential friends in Congress and the governor's mansion. The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels.

But he still carries baggage from his early days as a fire-breathing agitator: Government records obtained by The Associated Press indicate that Sharpton and his business entities owe nearly $1.5 million in overdue taxes and associated penalties.

Now the U.S. attorney is investigating his nonprofit group, a probe that an undeterred Sharpton brushes off as the kind of annoyance that civil rights figures have come to expect from the government.

"Whatever retaliation they do on me, we never stop," he told the AP. "I think that that is why they try to intimidate us."

Gee -- it is somehow "retaliation" to try to enforce the laws of the United States against a tax cheat who owes $1.5 million dollars? If any of us ordinary folks -- especially those of us who are white, vote Republican, and don't make our livings off of race-based hustling and lying -- were to owe that much money to the government, we wouldn't have a pot to piss in and would probably be in jail. Why is Sharpton still walking the streets? And will a Democrat president simply issue him a pardon to make this little tax problem all go away?

Posted by: Greg at 02:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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