NYPost

AL IS WARNED: LAY OFF JESSE

By DEBORAH ORIN VINCENT MORRIS and TOM TOPOUSIS

June 20, 2001 -- Black leaders yesterday warned Al Sharpton he's taking a big risk if he keeps going after Jesse Jackson.

They spoke after Sharpton, who aims to run for president, trashed Jackson by reviving the old charge that he smeared the assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King's blood on his shirt so he could claim he held the dying man in his arms.

"Rev. Jackson . . . is by far the most popular black activist politician in the country, with more than 80 percent support [among blacks], and Sharpton gets less than 50 percent," said Donna Brazile who was Al Gore's campaign manager.

"Jesse Jackson would be an invaluable player to any Democratic candidate running for president, including Al Sharpton," added Brazile, one of the nation's top black strategists.

Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke said: "It sounds like Sharpton is starting to believe the press idea that we need a black messiah for this century. That whole concept is dated."

Movie man Spike Lee, at a Harlem fund-raiser for state Comptroller Carl McCall, said: "Why is it with African-Americans it always has to be one guy?"

And NBA legend Magic Johnson, who hosted the McCall event, jumped in to say: "We need 100, not just one or two to lead."

David Bositis of the Joint Center, a think-tank focused on blacks, said: "Sharpton isn't really in Jesse's league - he's nowhere near as favorably viewed as Jesse [among blacks], and Sharpton is disliked by whites."

Some analysts say Sharpton wants to be America's No. 1 black leader and thinks now is the time to elbow Jackson aside because of the flap over Jackson's love child.

Sharpton, in jail for his Vieques protest, raised eyebrows by telling Fox News that questions about his support for Tawana Brawley's discredited rape claims are nothing compared to Jackson using King's blood.

"I think the Brawley case pales in comparison. Did I take the blood of the guy I loved and put it on my shirt? Let's talk about who we're getting behind," Sharpton sniped.

One stunned New York congressional staffer said of the hunger-striking Sharpton: "I think Rev. Al needs to eat. This guy sounds like he's delirious."

Jackson press secretary Keiana Peyton said: "Certain things we choose not to dignify with a comment, and this falls into that category."

Sharpton issued a statement via his lawyer that he wasn't trashing Jackson, but telling "how the press distorted" reports of King's death. But the Fox transcript shows him going after Jackson, not the press.

Jackson's son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), told The Post the feud doesn't affect him and he has no opinion on it. "It's totally irrelevant," he said. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) said the feud is poor form: "Friction among leaders can affect followers. My recommendation to both men is to . . . talk this out."

Insiders say the Sharpton-Jackson tensions go back years, exacerbated by a bitter split over Burger King's dispute with a millionaire black franchisee named La-Van Hawkins, who reportedly has given money to both

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001