We have written before in these pages that the mainstreaming of Al Sharpton is complete.

* We have written before in these pages that the mainstreaming of Al Sharpton is complete. Well, now it's really complete. Sharpton is stumping with John Kerry, and he is "going to campaign with me from now until Election Day"--that's what Kerry said. Kerry also said, "During the primaries, there was one person who consistently was always there, keeping the peace and the compass going in the right direction. And that was Rev. Al Sharpton." Forgotten is the Tawana Brawley hoax, in which Sharpton accused an assistant district attorney named Steven Pagones of raping and mutilating that girl. (No one had.) Sharpton proudly refuses to apologize for his defamation. Forgotten is Freddy's Fashion Mart, the incident in which Sharpton merely incited a mob to murder. (Seven people died; Sharpton had denounced "white interlopers" in Harlem.) Forgotten is all the other race-baiting, all the poison that Sharpton has emitted in the course of his glorious career. The press turns away; the Democratic party turns away, and embraces. It says something unpleasant about America that one of our major presidential nominees could link arms with such a man--and suffer no penalty whatsoever. No, the Democrats have decided that Sharpton is an asset. And the horrible truth is that they're probably right.