Exactly WHAT was he thinking?

The Rev. Al Sharpton can be a blowhard and a race-baiter. You doubt it? Think Tawana Brawley. Think the Duke lacrosse team “rape” case.

But he’s right to be upset about a Steve Serby column in the New York Post that began “Good for Tom Coughlin. Good for Coughlin for tightening the noose around Plaxico Burress.”

Raising the image of a rope around the neck of a black man? No can do. No should do. Lynching of African Americans took place in my lifetime. Lynching of African Americans took place in Serby’s lifetime.

What’s the statute of limitations on such a reference? I don’t know, but I do know we haven’t reached it. Any more than we’ve reached a place where blithe references can be made about Jews and the Holocaust.

(By the way, according to USA Today, at least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school were facing possible suspensions for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called "Hit a Jew Day.")

Not only should Serby have known better, his editors should have known better.

“To make such a blatant racist statement about an African-American football player with a neck injury is completely unacceptable,” Sharpton said. “Clearly, the racial connotation is very disturbing …”

Yes, Sharpton can be a blowhard. In this case, however, he’s right.