THE CARLSON/SHARPTON THING: What's with Tucker Carlson bringing in Al Sharpton as a regular commentator on Carlson's semi-new TV show? I can get the idea that curmudgeon conservative Carlson may want to mix it up with a cantankerous liberal; fine by me. But aren't there some feisty liberals who aren't rascist-demogogue-hustler- buffoons? Rich Lowry gets it right:

[Sharpton] wants to be remembered as the guy with the funny lines rather than a racial provocateur who smeared an innocent man during the Tawana Brawley hoax and built his New York notoriety on race hatred. "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business," Sharpton said in a 1995 Harlem controversy over a Jewish storeowner who had a conflict with a black rival neighbor. A protester in that case eventually shot his way through the store and burned the place down, killing eight people.