Nader accepts GOP signatures for ballot

[zauberflote]

July 19, 2004 | LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- In an about face, Ralph Nader decided Monday to accept thousands of petition signatures collected by Michigan Republicans if that's the only way he can qualify for the state's presidential ballot.

Last Thursday, Michigan Republican Party officials submitted 43,000 signatures -- far more than the 30,000 needed -- to ensure Nader could appear on the ballot as an independent. Republicans began collecting signatures after it appeared that Nader might not get on the ballot as the Reform Party's candidate for president.

(snip)

(Nader spokesman Kevin) Zeese said the goal is to get Nader on Michigan's ballot -- however it happens.

"We're going to continue to pursue the Reform Party, but we're not going to close off the independent option at this time while the Reform Party has not decided" who is in charge, he said.

Michigan Democratic Party leaders have asked Nader to refuse the signatures, saying Republicans want him on the ballot only to draw votes away from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

"We urge Nader to reject this Republican political trick and demonstrate that he is still a man with great integrity who honors his own beliefs," Michigan Democratic Executive Chairman Mark Brewer said.

Zeese initially said last week that the campaign would refuse the GOP signatures. He later said he wasn't sure that was still the case if it turned out state officials wouldn't accept the Reform Party nomination.

[Massacure]

1. Michigan is pretty well in Kerry's grasp.

I'm be much more worried about Florida and Ohio.

[gratuitous]

2. Or course he does!

The ends justify the means, don't they Ralph?

Integrity? Honor? They went out the window lo-o-o-ong ago for Mr. Nader. He can apparently look at the political carnage of this country from the last three years and honestly say that Al Gore would have done all the same things to the country, its environment, its Treasury, its military, its citizens and its judicial processes.

Ralph Nader has gone barking mad.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. Just read that on the Salon website.

Nader has just forfeited what credibility he had left. Time to send him to the old folks' home.

[zauberflote]

4. A link

http://salon.com/news/wire/2004/07/19/nader/index.html

[Jacobin]

5. For Billmon's scathing appraisal of St. Ralph's latest move:

Unsafe at Any Speed

It seems the auto state has give the Republican Party another opportunity to demonstrate who's really behind the steering wheel of the 2004 Nader campaign - and who's the crash dummy.

Last Thursday, the Michigan GOP submitted more than 40,000 signatures it collected to put Nader on the state's ballot as an independent candidate in November - thus helping Ralph sidestep a glitch in his bid to appear on the Reform Party line.

Nader abandoned his own Michigan signature drive weeks ago after he was "endorsed" by the right-wing crazies who control the rusting hulk of the national Reform Party. However, Michigan's secretary of state (a Democrat, naturally) refused to accept the paperwork filed by one of the two self-proclaimed leaders of the state Reform Party, saying the true ownership of the Perot's old jalopy would have to be sorted out in court before Nader could hitch a ride in it.

This might have left Ralph sucking car exhaust come November, since the deadline for submitting the necessary 30,000 signatures for an independent spot on the ballot expired at 4 p.m. last Thursday, and the Naderites only had about 5,000 or so signatures on hand. But then the GOP cavalry came charging over the hill - strictly in the interest of pluralism and diversity, you understand:

Full diatribe here:

http://www.billmon.org/

[cprise]

6. Democratic Party had Nader physically removed

...from the audience at a 2000 presidential debate. Although Democrats had already pressured the media to leave him out of the debate itself (and Dems got their way), relegating him to the audience was still too distasteful for the Democratic Party.

Do you think this goes through his mind at all when Dem organizers crow about "Republican political tricks"?

I wonder.

[LittleApple81]

7. I really did not like that at all. The democrats are rather stupid some

times.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. So that justifies this crap?

[FlashHarry]

9. Nader is a self-centered prick with delusions of grandeur.

What little credibility or respect he had at the end of the last century disappeared in Florida four years ago. In many ways he's worse than Bush. He is deliberately running to defeat John Kerry, accepting GOP support along the way. At least Bush is honest in his opposition to the Dems--he's a 'puke and 'pukes are supposed to run against progressive ideas. Nader claims to be progressive yet he runs knowing full well that his candidacy will do nothing other than funnel anti-Bush votes away from Kerry, rendering them totally useless.

Personally, I think Nader wants the GOP in power. The GOP is his Saddam. Without a mortal enemy, he ceases to exist. He needs Bush in power to remain in the spotlight.

When he said "there's no difference between Bush and Gore" he was lying--and naive people bought it. This time 'round, I hope people who oppose Bush will realize that a vote for Nader is, effectively, a vote for Bush.

[buff2]

10. If Nader cared about this country.........

He would let the repukes collect all the the signatures then send them all a letter telling them to vote for Kerry instead,because he knows this country can't stand another 4 years of the bu$h destruction.

[TaleWgnDg]

11. indeed . . . Ralph is pursuing the presidency

with the same unfettered exuberant zeal as he did when applying his attorney skills as America's feisty consumer advocate. Ralph has always been the appropriate zealous advocate for whatever position he has pursued, whether for his legal clients (the American people) or as a candidate for the presidency.

However, at some point, it is hoped that Ralph will look around and smell the flowers that are dying as a result of his inability to grasp, FINALLY, the damage that he wrought in the y2k election and potentially in this upcoming election. Look around at his bedfellows!!

Further, another Bush Adminstration (4 more years) would devastate the entire federal bench including the U.S. Supreme Court for the next 40, 50 or so years . . .

RALPH, WAKE-UP!!! Don't you remember when you said, "it's better to stay OUTSIDE government in order to attack the wrong-doing INSIDE the government!"