I don’t have a great deal of use for the Rev. Al Sharpton, but sometimes he amuses me, as he does most everyone else. Remember when Senator Biden referred to Candidate Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”? I don’t know what became of him, after that remark. Anyway, the “clean” part of that statement was extraordinary. And Sharpton responded, “I take a bath every day.”

P.S. If a conservative Republican – say someone from the “religious Right” — had said what Biden said: Could he have retained a high position in American public life? America’s racial politics are positively psycho. But this is old news . . .