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Posted on 06/19/2003 10:03:10 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Sharpton Seeks Apology From Lawmaker
By SARAH FREEMAN .c The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) - An attorney for presidential candidate Al Sharpton is demanding an apology from a Michigan lawmaker whose letter last month said the Democrat has ``a long-standing history of inciting bigotry and intolerance on a prominent stage.''
The lawmaker, state Republican Rep. Marc Shulman, said Thursday he would not apologize to Sharpton.
Last month, 28 state House Republicans, including Shulman, signed a letter asking the Michigan Democratic Party's Black Caucus to rescind its invitation to Sharpton to be the keynote speaker at an awards dinner May 9, citing the public comments he has made over the years. Sharpton addressed the caucus and called the criticism ``absolute lies.''
On Tuesday, attorney Michael A. Hardy wrote Shulman and called the letter criticizing Sharpton an ``outright defamation of character.'' Hardy's letter asked for an apology from Shulman within 30 days, or ``we will seek to exhaust all legal remedies which may be available to us.''
Shulman, saying he believed what he said was ``absolutely right,'' dismissed the call for an apology.
``If he does sue, I will countersue him,'' he said Thursday. ``His candidacy is laughable. ... He should be held accountable for what he said, which was insensitive and anti-Semitic.''
The Shulman letter attributed quotes to Sharpton it said illustrated ``Rev. Sharpton's lack of empathy and fostering of anti-Semitism, racism and hate.'' It included footnotes outlining sources for the quotes.
Hardy, of the New York law firm Scheurer & Hardy, P.C., said the quotes and sources previously have been proven to be inaccurate.
``We can demonstrate if we are forced to that all the quotes are either paraphrasing or not precise or accurate quotations of Reverend Sharpton,'' Hardy said Tuesday. ``In some cases, quotes from other persons in a program have been attributed to Reverend Sharpton.''
``Reverend Sharpton is certainly fair game in the public arena, but it can't be defamatory, and if it is, we intend to defend him on that,'' he said.
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich picked up his first congressional endorsement from fellow liberal activist Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.
Woolsey represents a northern California district where Kucinich has been stumping in his underdog bid for the nomination. The two are active in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and held news conferences together to criticize the war with Iraq.
``If my district were the whole country, Dennis Kucinich could certainly be our next president,'' Woolsey said in a statement. She also said she helped Kucinich make his recent transformation from abortion opponent to abortion rights supporter.
``He has always supported women,'' she said. ``Now, he supports their reproductive rights as well.''
Few political observers would accuse Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., of selling out his conservative values, but that's exactly what a group of Pennsylvania Republicans are doing in light of his support of Sen. Arlen Specter's re-election bid.
Specter, a political moderate, will face conservative Rep. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania's GOP Senate primary next April. Although Santorum is far more ideologically aligned with Toomey, the junior senator was one of the first to back Specter publicly.
And that has the state's ``Mainstream Republicans'' seeing red.
``If we hadn't bled for you, and didn't continue to think of you as one of our own, this would not be so painful,'' wrote chairman Ted Meehan.
``I'm dreadfully disappointed in this, and can't think of too many ways to describe it other than as a sellout.''
In an interview, Meehan said Santorum ``has a lot more to lose with us than he wins with Specter'' and predicted that Pennsylvania's conservatives will remember the endorsement flap when the junior senator is up for re-election in 2006.
``It undermines his position with his base,'' Meehan said, noting that it was his group who helped Santorum secure the state GOP nomination in 1994 during his first Senate run.
Santorum's spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.
Associated Press Writers Amy F. Bailey in Lansing, Mich., and Lara Jakes Jordan and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.
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