Nader Rips Lieberman -- & Lamont

[oberliner]

Nader Rips Lieberman -- & Lamont
by Paul Bass | August 2, 2006 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ralph Nader came to New Haven Wednesday to blast U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman for his record on business issues. Before he left, though, he ended up taking sharp issue with Lieberman's challenger in Aug. 8 Democratic primary, Ned Lamont, over the war in Lebanon.

Nader, the consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential candidate, spoke to an overflow audience of about 75 people in the basement public room of the New Haven Free Public Library.

He came to deliver a speech, typed on an old Underwood typewriter, attacking Lieberman for his endorsement by the right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Nader noted that the group generally supports Republicans, not Democrats. He cited a long list of pro-corporate, anti-consumer positions that Lieberman has supported, from free-trade agreements (CAFTA and NAFTA) and the "Cheney/Exxon energy bill" to lawsuit protection for tobacco companies and manufacturers.


http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2006/08/nad...

[MadMaddie]

1. Nader who?........

Don't get distracted by him.....we let him distract us once before and we are still feeling the results of that distraction....

[mr715]

2. Oh lord

Why cant Nader just die already?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. "an overflow audience...in a basement public room"

"Hey Joe! Do you know that the men's room is packed with people? What's up with that?"

[Doctor_J]

4. (Yawn)

shut up, you old fossil. You and your cult helped get us into this disaster.

[snowbear]

5. ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[DainBramaged]

6. Nader; pondscum has more relevance

[RiffRandell]

7. Nader is like, so cool, and like, so anti war, and like such

A FUCKING DOUCHEBAG! God, just go AWAY you Republican tool!

[calico1]

8. Thank you, Ralph.

Now go get back under your rock.

[zulchzulu]

9. I agree with Ralph, but it would be political suicide for Lamont to...

...challenge the AIPAC/Zionist wing of the Democratic party this close to the race.

Surely Ralph knows that...

Most people may not know that Ralph Nader is a son of Lebanese parents.

[eviltwin2525]

10. How do you make that "ralphing" icon?

Although he did much good 40 years ago, his 15 minutes are long since up. Speech "typed on an old Underwood typewriter"....wtf?!? Like that's some kind of virtue. If Nader still cared about America rather than his own ego, he wouldn't have gotten Bush elected in 2000, or at least had the deceny to apologize for it.

[snowbear]

11. Ralphie is looking pretty rough..

And image is dated 2001!

[zulchzulu]

13. I met Ralph in 2004...

Yes, he's a rangy tall dude with an physical odometer a little high, but he's not that bad looking in person. He actually makes sense on a lot of issues regarding campaign finance and the environment...I just have problems when he's a spoiler vote in presidential elections.

Digital cameras sure can make anybody look like shit.

[Joe Bacon]

45. The only thing missing from that picture is a pair of neck bolts!

NADERSTEIN

[Caution]

12. Fuck him. I can't wait for him to disappear.

[ashling]

14. If Nader was that concerned about Joe

He should have run against him for the Senate in 2000 .......

INSTEAD OF FUCKING UP THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD FOR THE REST OF US!

[zulchzulu]

15. I agree. It would be cool to have a Senator Nader biting on GOP heels...

I'm convinced Nader will not run in 2008, so I'm willing to get over what he did in 2000 and 2004. If yuo ever get a chance to actually listen to him speak, you'd agree with a lot of what he says for the most part.

I'm over hating him. I really feel he should have run against Lieberman this year. He didn't...

[Vickers]

16. "typed on an old Underwood typewriter"

[Totally Committed]

25. I know... that little detail didn't escape me, either.

It kind of gave him that Ted Kaczynski vibe. I'm beginning to think Ralph is gonna finish out his days in a cabin in the woods, ranting at the walls, and sending hate-mail to everying whose address he can remember.

That just made him seem like some out-of-touch Luddite scary old fossil.

TC

[Vickers]

26. "It kind of gave him that Ted Kaczynski vibe."

OMG!!!

Someone needs to use one of those morphing programs to show Ralph turning into Ted!

I'm surprised they didn't mention his corncob pipe and rocking chair, etc. etc.

[Totally Committed]

29. Oh, come on , now...

You can't tell me I'm the only one who gets that same "Whacko in the Woods" feel from Nader as from Kaczynski.

TC

[AlCzervik]

17. Ralph try and help, be part of the solution, not just the critic.

if he was so concerned that he should offer to talk to candidates instead of just blasting them. Nader has done good in his career but his politcal shit is going to wipe all of that away.

[theanarch]

18. one wonders how many of the pious Nader-bashers

who posted here bothered to click on the link and read the whole article...he actually did Lamont a big favor by providing an extensive list of anti-Lieberman talking points that resonate with the kinds of grassroots voters Lamont will need to win, both the primary and the general election. These points are precisely the kind of "economic populism" corporate Democrats have been running away from since the DLC took over the DNC, and the base-line reason why Democrats have become America's second party ever since (e.g. alienating the middle/working/working-poor classes from the DP elites by taking the corporate side on bread-and-butter/pocketbook issues). While i certainly don't expect such a biased lot as DU'ers to thank Nader for pointing them in the right direction (again, economic populism: strong unions, consumer rights/protection, citizen-friendly regulation of business/commerce, etc), it would be nice if they could swallow their hatred of St. Ralph (personally i don't much like the guy myself) long enough to recognize the value of his work in this area, and its relevance to reviving a moribund Democratic Party.

As for Nader's criticism of Lamont re: Israel's "war" on Lebanon, i agree 100%--it wouldn't cost Lamont one vote to take a more even-handed position (voters who will cast their vote on the basis of a single issue--Israel--will be voting for Leiberman anyway); if anything, it would probably net him more votes.

[ashling]

19. I read the post, and I might have been a little over the top

The point I was making was that he should have run for the Senat against Lieberman or somebody and staayed out of the presidential race. As has been said, he HAS done a lot of good. If he were in the Senate he might actually have a credible voice and be able to actually affect good again.

[bowens43]

22. No one cares. Nader and his monsterous ego

put Bush in the oval office. Nader stabbed America in the back. Why should anyone listen to the clown now?

[Zhade]

37. Well, that plus the ILLEGAL THEFT.

I'm all for holding the guilty accountable, but let's remember that Gore WON Florida and was only prevented from taking office by the USSC.

(But otherwise, yeah, fuck Nader.)

[DainBramaged]

31. Nader and his robots cost America AL Gore in 2000

his supporters can try as hard as they like to sugar coat him and the election, but if a few thousand of them had voted for Gore in Florida, this wouldn't even be up for discussion.

If he was on fire in front of me, well, you know wat I wouldn't do.

And I've decided to ignore Nadar supporters from now on.

[ashling]

32. Don't get me wrong

I am NOT a Nader supporter by any stretch of the imagination. I pretty much agree with you.

[LittleClarkie]

34. So can anyone disagree with Ralph in your book

without being a "pious Nader basher"? Or does that pretty much cover anyone who disagrees with the guy or has little use for him for one reason or another.

[theanarch]

41. i never let my personal feelings get in the way...

...of maintaining a broader perspective, however much bile i have to swallow to do so--i think it falls under the rubrics of intellectual honesty and emotional maturity. I suspect that, unlike many here, i've met Nader and seen him operate; and while those experiences have given me serious doubts about his abilities as a candidate, i have no doubts about his abilities to coherently and cogently analysis what's wrong, not only with this country, but with the Democratic Party (which is his first allegience, regardless of what you're expected to believe to the contrary--PM me and i'll explain). My point is, if DU'ers in particular, and Democrats in general, could put aside their emotionalism towards Nader (and yes, "Fuck you", "just die", "GOP whore", etc., IS gratuitous Nader-bashing, and NOT constructive criticism) and reflect on what he says (instead of obsessing on what he is accused of having done), you just might understand why the Democratic Party--under the DLC--has become America's permanent second party...and the political/electoral "B" Team of empire at that (the folks the ruling elite turn to when Repukes--their chosen and preferred "A" Team--fuck up too egregiously).

I will also note that blaming Nader for Bush has become the Democrats psychological default setting, which pre-empts (and prevents) Democrats from seriously analysing all the structural faults of Gore's 2000 campaign, that contributed far more to the final outcome than anything Nader did. Gore lost a lot of traditionally Democratic states (like W. VA) and swing states which could, and should, have gone Democratic, without Nader being a factor...if you can understand why that happened, you're on the road to recovery.

[union_maid]

42. No, it doesn't

It really doesn't. No one thinks that Nader was the only or even the biggest problem. No one. No matter what direction you're coming from. The bile I fell toward Nader is not just because he chose to play the spoiler, or because he chose to play God, which in a way, he did. It's because he's a grown-up. A lot of his supporters were college kids or at least young enough not to really understand. He said there wasn't a lot of difference and a lot of them hadn't lived long enough to know better. He did. He also knew how bad things would be for the most vulnerable people. Those people - groups most likely to suffer under a Republican administration - were not among his supporters by and large. He knew that, too. And still he did what he did.

If you played even a tiny, tiny part in the carnage and destruction that's happened in the last six years, would you be out there making like you had something worthwhile to say? I doubt it. You probably have a conscience. He doesn't. All he's got is a monstrous ego.

[LittleClarkie]

43. No one would ever live up to his standard

but seems to treat everyone as equally guilty.

I could almost deal with that if he measured himself by the same standard. But he didn't. That is what galled me the most. A conference call and a pizza party became a convention. Republicans supported him in 2004 because in his mind they could somehow support his message. He wasn't honest with himself. If he can not turn that uncompromising eye towards himself in the mirror, then I will not listen to him as he aims it at anyone else.

[union_maid]

40. What he says is no longer the point

If he were a decent human being he'd be so sunk in shame and regret that he would either have killed himself by now or would find some equally drastic way to do the right thing. But no, he still thinks that anything he says is worth listening to.

As far as being a pious Nader basher - I said in 2000 that I'd never forgive him if he helped Bush into the White House. Nothing has happened to change my mind. He blood on his hands and apparently nothing on his conscience. Other than that, I'm just dying to hear what he thinks about things.

[Joe Bacon]

20. Ralph, get in your Corvair and just drive away for good.

And PLEASE take your pal Grover Norquist with you!

[bowens43]

21. Fuck Nader. Nader gave us this mess we have now.

Nader is fucking clown that deserves nothing but contempt. There sure is hell is no reason to listen to anything that egotistical idiot has to say.

[seabeyond]

23. election time, here comes nadar to attack dems.... as he take $

from repug. what an ass. each election i lose more and more respect for this man. actually by 2004 all respect was gone

[skeeters2525]

24. Who

Who do you care less about. Nader 100% Lieberman 100% Lamont 100%

If there was ever a story I didn't need to read, congratulations, you found it.


What exactly has Nader done, to make me care about what he thinks about this stupid election?

Got rid of the Corvair. Wow. He is greater the JFK

Wait, what exactly did Ned Lamont do for the Country. He ran against against a Dem and will probably beat him. Wait, he is the new JFK.

Meanwhile, Nader thought Gore and Bush were the same.

Could there be a way to remove his brain for stupidity of that high level.


That is stupidity of mass destruction. Tune it out or become a zombie.

[Mabus]

27. Hey Ralphie, where's all that "accountability" shit you promised?

He promised to hold whomever won the 2000 contest accountable. He promised that he would keep track of what was promised and what was actually delivered. All talk. Just talk. His ego has gotten in the way too many times. Fuck him.

Fuck him and the covair he drive in with.

[wyldwolf]

28. "an overflow audience of about 75 people"

There was one irrelevant person in CT, and it wasn't Lieberman or Lamont.

[Bunny]

30. Ralph, sit down and shut up.

Douchebag.

[LittleClarkie]

33. Overflow audience

They had to find a venue small enough so that they could say that.

Yeah, great Ralph. So do you have anything doable or constructive to suggest?

[Zhade]

35. Lamont's stance on Israel's actions IS wrong...

...but I don't really care what Nader has to say.

[citizen snips]

36. fuck nader

n/t

[LittleClarkie]

38. Shouldn't I get to know him first?

Dinner at the least would be nice.

[citizen snips]

39. sure

but only if he is paying for it.

[rep the dems]

44. Fuck Ralph Nader.

Knowing that he doesn't like either one will probably just make other people like them more.

[The Wolf]

46. It's amazing how one man's ego will forever haunt an entire party...

I saw him on "Real Time with Bill Maher" during the '04 Election and he does make great points about issues. But he self-grandizes himself so much that he blocks out the issues and pushes the Greens further into obscurity, a hell of a feat coming from a man who isn't actually a registered Green. All it took was that, which shows me that the "ABD&R" (Anyone but Dems or Republicans) wing have taken control over the main hierarchy of the Party. I'm more of what they'd call the Independent Green (proudly Green, but open to other voices and minds as registering for DU was a small example of). I'd love to see someone dig up some dirt on Nader and his voter registration, if dirt has not already been dug up on that. Might paint a telling picture why he stormed out of Milwaukee a day before the convention took place.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

47. 75? BWAAAAHH HAH HAH HAAAAA!!!

Man, that's hilarious! My WIFE, who is Chair of our local county party, gets about 100 volunteers to show up at her local Democratic party gatherings.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community