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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Democrats close Capitol Hill Doors on Nader |
Current rating: 0 |
by Article from USA Today-submitted by Matt Reed
Email: mareede (nospam) ilstu.edu (unverified!)
Phone: (309) 436-1191
Address: 270 Atkin Hall |
01 Feb 2001
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Democrats refuse to work with Nader. |
Ralphh Nader's former allies, angered by his role in helping President Bush win the White House, are taking steps that could reduce his clout in Congress.
"Who's going to work with him now?" says Michigan Rep. John Conyers, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
The backlash against Nader, who placed a distant third in the presidential election on the Green Party line, is widespread. Democrats are closing doors on Capitol Hill. Some liveral activists have stopped contributing to his consumer groups.
Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, which Nader founded in 1971, says lawmakers have told her that they will not work with the consumer advocate. He was even rebuffed from testifying at Senate hearings on John Ashcroft's nomination as attourney general.
"We're not going to touch him with a 10-foot pole," Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., says. "He has divorced himself from the very ideals that made him a worthwhile political actor. He sold out his constituency."
Stunned by the backlash, Nader has asked Marcus Raskin of the Institute for Policy Studies, an anti-globalization think tank, to reach out to environmentalists, trial lawyers, and Democrats. "The anger of the psdt is going to be very hard to transcend," Raskin says.
Polls have shows that about half of Nader voters would have voted for Al Gore if Nader had not run, compared with about 20% for Bush. That would have given Florida and New Hampshire-and the White House-to Gore.
Nader says he doubts that former allies will continue to shun him and his groups. "What are they going to say, 'We don't want your help?'" he says. "Is the Democratic Party, in the latter stages of decay, now one for masochism?"
Nader says he is not ready to put his political efforts aside. He says he wants the Greens to run more than 1,000 campaigns for local, state, and federal offices in 2002, up from 280 in 2000.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., says it is "bizarre" for Nader to believe that Democrats would welcome him after he attacked them during the election. "Nader can never admit he was wrong," Frank says. |
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my response to the article itself |
by Matt Reeder
mareede (nospam) ilstu.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
01 Feb 2001
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I published this because it was an interesting newsworthy event concerning Ralph Nader.
Nonetheless, I find this very disturbing-and somewhat amusing. The Democratic Party refuses to admit they are shooting themselves in their collective foot, even as more and more jump ship for either the Republican Party or the Green Party. They refuse to admit they are in big trouble-and that will be their undoing.
I don't even know who or what the Democratic Party is anymore. I ceased to support it two years ago and now I am a registered Green. I feel much better about myself for it.
The Democrats aren't going to forgive Nader-and this is only going to help him.
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