The Washington Post reports that Presidential Candidate John Kerry paid Al Sharpton to be his friend.

All of John Kerry's one-time rivals in the Democratic presidential primary eventually lined up to support him as the nominee, but only Al Sharpton got paid for it.

The Democratic National Committee paid Sharpton $86,000 in travel and consulting fees to compensate for his campaigning for Kerry and other Democratic candidates, according to reports to the Federal Election Commission.

. . . records show that while most of the money was to reimburse travel expenses, Sharpton was paid $35,000 as a "political consulting fee" 15 days after the election.

It is not yet known whether or not Sharpton requested the payment, but I have my own suspicions. Sharpton has a history of campaign violations and seemingly continued his campaign for the sole purpose of living high on the hog and receiving federal matching funds.