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There are few political figures who have had as many lives as Al Sharpton. He has been so many things. A boy preacher. A roadie for James Brown. A racial rabble-rouser. Tracksuit aficionado. New York tabloid staple. Senate, mayoral and presidential candidate. Cable news host. Presidential adviser.

And almost like clockwork, stories emerge from time to time, about his, shall we say, complicated, finances.This week, the New York Times posteda story about his messy management of the National Action Network, a grassroots group he founded in 1991. Here's the key paragraph:

Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills. Records reviewed by The New York Times show more than $4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses.

The story comes as Sharpton's power and prominence with the powerful has never been higher. With Ferguson, Missouri on edge awaiting a grand jury ruling on the shooting of an unarmed black man, Sharpton will assume his role as protestor-in-chief in the coming days.In Washington, he has a direct line to President Obama's top advisors, most recently weighing in on Loretta Lynch as Obama's pick for Attorney General. And in New York, Mayor Bill DeBlasio counts him as a friend, though they have publicly clashed. Hillary Clinton, should she run, will likely have to reckon with Sharpton. For conservatives, he has been the favorite boogey man and consummate race-baiter. (Though Newt Gingrich embraced him in 2009 as part of an education tour.)

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton says the situation in Ferguson, Mo., is very tense as the community awaits word on whether a grand jury will indict a white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, a young, unarmed black man. (AP)

Sharpton's popularity is wrapped up in race and party politics, with African Americans and Democrats in New York City viewing him favorably while whites and Republicans have a far dimmer view of him, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Almost 80 percent of black New Yorkers say that Sharpton has been a positive force in the city; 64 percent of whites say he has been a negative force. Among Democrats, almost 60 percent say he has been a positive force; 81 percent of Republicans saying he is a negative force.

In a press release touting the poll numbers, Sharpton said: "We have made mistakes, but we have and will continue to correct those mistakes. Our work has far outweighed our mistakes and I am neither focused on the polls or the attacks."

At a 45-minute press conference Wednesday morning he did address the Times story. He began with an update of his plans around Ferguson and Staten Island and then dismissed the Times story out of hand, vowing not to get into a back and forth with the New York Times, but then promptly getting into a back and forth with the New York Times."The story is at best misleading and totally out of context," he said, arguing that much of the information in the story was based on old tax bills that he had set up payment plans for.

But more than anything, Sharpton wanted to cast himself in the company of other liberals -- many of them elected officials -- who have been, in his mind, unfairly castigated."I think it's political," Sharpton said of the attention being paid to his finances. "A lot of people don't like the fact that President Obama is the president. A lot of people don't like the fact that Bill de Blasio won for mayor. And they certainly don't like the fact that I'm still here, and I ain't going nowhere."

Of course, it doesn't take a financial genius to see that neither Obama nor de Blasio are currently carrying $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens against them and organizations with which they are affiliated, making Sharpton's comparison somewhat specious.

Read more from the original source:
The Fix: The nine lives of Al Sharpton