(February 21, 2004) In his 2003 autobiography, Al on America, the Rev. Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. admits, "I have been guilty of letting ungodly things around me."

And that was never more true than with the latest revelations about Sharpton, who has now been exposed as a cat's-paw for the National Republican Party.

Rev. Al has a long and sordid history of posing as the champion of the have-nots, while renting himself out to the greedy have-everythings, which predates his "04 GOP-funded presidential campaign. In 1986, he endorsed N.Y. Senator Al D'Amato for re-election -- although D'Amato, a conservative Republican pit bull, was anathema to more issues-attuned black leaders.

In 1994, he helped dampen down the black vote for Governor Mario Cuomo by making a media-hyped appearance with successful conservative Republican candidate George Pataki just days before the election. In the 2001 New York mayoral campaign, he connived with GOP billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the defeat of the Democratic candidate, Mark Green.