| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front | |
| Rev. Al Living Large(r) | |
| 2003-12-01 | |
| The Rev. Al Sharpton’s long-shot presidential campaign is sparing no expense when it comes to travel and dining - even though it’s nearly broke. Despite having just over $24,000 on hand and owing more than $177,000, Sharpton is touring the country in style, according to the most recently available campaign financial data. Now here’s a man who knows how to live on other people’s money. Wotta great Democrat!
"Why should I spend it all on TV ads and campaign staff when I can spend it on myself?" Other hotels benefiting from the reverend’s run for the White House include the ultra-posh Phoenician in Arizona; the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas; the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn, Mich.; and Miami’s world-famous Mandarin Oriental. Sharpton told The Post he is on a $200-a-day stipend from his campaign for hotel expenditures. $200 isn’t even tip money at the Mandarian Oriental. The Democratic White House hopeful also said many of the hotel stops coincided with various events sponsored by organizations that will reimburse him later. A campaign source told The Post. Sharpton is fond of saying he "grew up living with cockroaches, and he doesn’t want to live with them anymore." They don’t want to live with him, either. The campaign also spared no expense on food and transportation. Two charges at the city eatery Harry Cipriani ran nearly $700, and the campaign shelled out almost $1,700 for a single limousine service in Chicago. Sharpton is expected to request public matching funds in which taxpayers match up to $250 per individual contribution to the campaign, though he hasn’t yet filed the appropriate paperwork with the Federal Election Committee. Al’s always been a little light on doing paperwork. The campaign’s spending habits on travel are particularly striking when compared to the front-running Democratic primary candidate. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean - who had $12 million on hand as of Oct. 15 and is not accepting public financing - often stays with his mother when in New York and always puts his staff up at non-luxury hotels, according to a campaign source. Hotels listed in Dean’s financial statements include Howard Johnson’s, the Comfort Inn and the anything-but-glamorous Franklin Hotel on the Upper East Side. Further endearing his staff to him. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 The Church Of The Presumptuous Assumption, maybe? Really, this is typical of the Raucous Reverend; if he had tits, he'd be the perfect Welfare Queen. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2003-12-1 1:53:31 PM |
| #5 A "civil rights leader" who finds a way to turn it into good money is never going to lead you to the promised land. He's just going to go round and round in circles, collecting dough as he goes. I'm curious: does anybody know which nationally recognized religious organization bestowed the honorary "Rev" on Mr. Sharpton? |
| Posted by: BH 2003-12-1 1:41:40 PM |
| #4 wonder what his hair-care budget is? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-12-1 12:57:01 PM |
| #3 Tawana Brawley...You forget the man has credibility as a crusader of righteous causes...and for Truth, justice, and the American Way. He and the Right Reverend Jesse never met a piggy bank they couldn't resist taking. |
| Posted by: ScottC 2003-12-1 12:46:13 PM |
| #2 Sharpton IS a cockroach. His dumbass contributors haven't figured it out, yet, but he's just running the easiest scam available. I probably could've afforded staying in the Mansion, when I lived in Dallas, for about 2 or 3 hours. $200 isn't tip money there either. This is pretty funny shit. Wonder how widely this story will be picked up by the conflicted press types... |
| Posted by: .com 2003-12-1 12:08:19 PM |
| #1 they say you should admire a person whose got a better scam going than you do |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-12-1 11:40:51 AM |