Let me tell you about Florida! Now some of you may have received an email claiming to be from the classic Bogart and Bacall thriller, "Key Largo." In the film set in the favorite state of vote counters, Edward G. Robinson portraying the gangster Rocco talks to Bogie and Bacall:

"You hick, I’ll be back pulling strings to get guys elected . . .

"Yeah, how many of those guys in office owe everything to me. I made them, yeah, I made them just like a tailor makes a suit of clothes.

"I take a nobody, see, teach him what to say, get his name in the papers, pay for his campaign expenses, dish out a lot of groceries and coal, get my boys to bring the voters out and then count the votes over and over again til they added up right and he was elected."

Yup, "count the votes over and over again til they added up right."

This was Florida in 1948.

QConfidential has learned that Edison Schools Inc. brought the Reverend Al Sharpton into their offices to win his support for privatization ownership of failing City schools. An Edison source told QConfidential " Reverend Al agreed to get behind it. His influence over the minority majority that composes the school’s student bodies could be a key to the outcome of the Edison vote. But now he’s flip flopped on his position."

Our source added, " He was all for it, that is, until we told him that Mayor Rudy Giuliani was for it also."  Al’s sudden retreat, along with vehement opposition by outgoing Board of Ed President Bill Thompson, and criticism of Chancellor Harold Levy’s bungling of the issue, virtually made certain that the Edison vote went down in defeat.

"I can’t believe that something that will help our kids' education will go down the drain because of a vendetta against Rudy. The Reverend Al is so full of hostility towards the mayor for a variety of reasons, some of which are justified. He told us that since nothing else was working, Edison’s intervention was worth a try. Now he’s publicly ridiculing the plan. Obviously, it’s personal. . . Rather than allowing Rudy to take credit for an education program that actually worked, Sharpton would let the Edison vote fail so that Giuliani fails," our Edison source had said.

Sharpton, the activist with the trademark James Brownesque slicked back quaff, seemed to be the fly in the ointment of the Edison School’s vote.

Even after spending four days on the lam while once again ditching drug rehab, the cancer-stricken Darryl Strawberry still hasn’t loss the support of some of his closest friends — in particular, former New York Met and Yankee teammate Dwight "Doc" Gooden.

Prior to checking into a Florida hospital and surrendering to police, a host of Strawberry’s pals, including the doctor, scoured Tampa’s drug dens in search of the former slugger who had lost his way.

Though the recently retired Gooden had to fly to New York for the Bronx Bombers’ season opener—cutting his hunt short — he talked about returning to Florida afterward to resume the search.

Strawberry turned up before he had the chance.

Now it’s up to a judge to decide whether or not he’ll send the repeat offender up the river.

Friends close to Strawberry said his flight was prompted by his fear of enduring another round of chemotherapy to battle the resurging cancer.

The mother of Jesse Jackson’s love child, Karin Stanford, is writing a tell-all book about her affair with the vaunted civil-rights leader, according to reports.

According to NYPOST.COM, the book will tell about a previous abortion at Jackson’s request, a gun threat by his wife and Lewinsky-style sperm evidence storage.

However, the report also says that Stanford’s lawyer is denying the story, saying that what she decides to do depends on whether or not a support agreement for the baby can be reached.

No news on whether the book will reveal whether Jackson yells, "Who’s your daddy?" in that interesting way he speaks or if he rhymes in bed.

If you call up Claire Shulman’s spokesperson, Dan Andrews, using a 212 area code you get the offices of Vanity Fair magazine.

Received via email: Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat Congressman Mel Reynolds to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s payroll.

Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused in President Bill Clinton’s last-minute forgiveness spree. Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year Federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud & lies to the Federal Election Commission.

He is more notorious however, for concurrently serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.

This is a first in American politics – an ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a President who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.

Vallone Pitching: At a recent school groundbreaking, Mayoral wannabe Peter Vallone lives out a real childhood dream, hanging with the '69 Mets' Ed Charles and Ed Kranepool.
photo: Ira Cohen