Friday, Jan. 9, 2003 3:19 p.m. EST
Sharpton: Clinton 'Killed the Democratic Party'
The Democratic Party is dead, presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton said Thursday. And it's Bill Clinton's fault.
Launching into a tirade against Democratic centrists during an interview on Washington, D.C., TV station WJLA, Sharpton complained that it's been all downhill for Democrats since Clinton took over 10 years ago.
"Bill Clinton won, the party didn't," railed the radical reverend. "And Bill Clinton [might] not have won if it had not been for Perot."
"That is my point - centrism killed this party," he insisted. "We didn't regain the Congress in 1998. ... In 2000 we lost it all. In 2002 we were demolished, we were demolished. We lost everything as a party."
Sharpton said Democrats certainly couldn't do any worse if they nominated him for president, since the party seems to be flat-lining already.
"People are saying, 'Will Sharpton, the Progressive, kill the party?' The party's dead. I've come to help start the resurrection," he announced.
Though Sharpton's comments are among the most politically explosive uttered during the presidential campaign so far, with the exception of radio host Rush Limbaugh, who played the Sharpton audio during his Friday broadcast, the reverend's outburst has gone unreported. |
