Al Sharpton, the great apology collector and self-anointed political correctness watchdog, suddenly found himself on the other end of this touchy, silly business last week.

The man who has made a "career" out of castigating those who commit the sin of insensitivity was insensitive himself, not to mention just plain wrong.

A few weeks after successfully demanding that Don Imus be fired from his radio show for making racist comments, Sharpton is now apologizing for comments he made about Mormons and Mitt Romney in a speech last week.

So far, he hasn't demanded that he be fired.

"As for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that, that's a temporary situation," said Sharpton during a debate in New York.

In a single sentence, he insulted an entire religion and a presidential candidate. Romney called it "extraordinarily bigoted."

Actually, it was just ignorant and reckless.

Sharpton tried every tack to steer out of this storm. At one point he said he was misunderstood, then he said Romney was fabricating a controversy to help his campaign, then he offered an apology and asked for a meeting with Romney's church leaders.

In other words, he did exactly what Imus did.

You've got to love irony this rich. Of all people, Sharpton should know better; he should know what it feels like and where this leads. This is his shtick. It was like hearing that Sheryl Crow had cut down a tree.

Some are demanding that Sharpton be fired. But from what?

Has anybody ever figured out what it is that Sharpton (or for that matter Jesse Jackson) does and how he became one of the country's moral arbiters? He hasn't been elected to public office, and he holds no real discernible job, but he keeps turning up everywhere to put out p.c. fires, usually adding more fuel to the flame instead. The media play along and print everything he says, lending him more credibility than he deserves. The question no one can answer is why anyone cares what this guy thinks.

Sharpton is identified as a minister, civil rights activist and political candidate. Are these paying gigs? The irony — and there are many — is that he isn't qualified to serve in his role as the spokesman for What's Good to Say and What's Bad to Say. He should have been given the Imus treatment a long time ago.

According to published reports, here is a sampling of Sharpton's Greatest Hits:

He once called New York City Mayor David Dinkins "that (n-word) whore turning tricks in City Hall."

He referred to a business owner as a "white interloper."