...Aides to Kucinich, Nader, Dean bought supplies from Wal-Mart

[Algorem]

Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers, er, critics
Aides to Kucinich, Nader, Dean bought supplies from chain

http://www.cleveland.com/world/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1129541417293880.xml&coll=2

Monday, October 17, 2005
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
Washington

-- Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Howard Dean and others on the national stage have badmouthed Wal-Mart over its wages, benefits or impact on American communities.

Yet, their aides have bought office and campaign supplies there -- and presumably saved their bosses money with the low-price shopping.

Records reviewed by The Plain Dealer show that political organizations headed by these politicians -- as well as John Kerry, Wesley Clark, the liberal activist group America Coming Together and the pro-feminist group Emily's List -- have spent money at Wal-Mart over the last 2½ years.

Leaders and advisers of these groups have either criticized Wal-Mart or are lobbying to stop Wal-Mart's spread in cities including Cleveland...

[tk2kewl]

1. dingbats

:(

[mattclearing]

2. Ugh.

When our leaders don't know how to buy blue, you really have to wonder what planet they are on.

Disclosure: I'm a Dean person. This is disappointing.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Shopping at Wal Mart vs. Illegal war

Which is worse? Depends on who one asks, I guess.

[Epiphany4z]

4. See this is something they really need to work on

I saw Dean on hardball a while back and was asked if he thought people should drive smaller cars to help save on gas...he wouldn't answere....arrrggg...It made him look weak and like he didn't really believe what he was saying...maybe he doesn't ...I don't know but it really bothered me when I saw that segment.

[NYCGirl]

6. He doesn't think he has the right to tell anyone what they should drive.

And he's right. Sometimes you just have to trust people to make GOOD CHOICES.

[NYCGirl]

5. The AIDES in their campaigns? This is a NON-STORY.

Jesus, these people probably didn't even KNOW where their campaigns were shopping.

[dsc]

7. This article has a very dishonest headline to say the least

Tubbs Jones spent $40, Kucinich spent around $500, Nader around $450. Only Kerry, Dean and Clark, among those whose amounts were given spent over $1000. Dean and Clark had highly decentralized campaigns which spent as they wished. My Dean group didn't spend at WalMart but we had a plethera of options. I am not all that concerned that around $5K of Dean's money went to WalMart. That is around 1/20 of 1%.

[400Years]

11. exactly, so you've got an entire staff and one picks up some paper

at walmart. Big fuckin' deal!

[Spinzonner]

8. Oh, the humanity

[wmills551]

9. The only people who really boycott Walmart

Are rich white Democrats who would never shop there anyway. If you are poor or a candidate on a shoe string, you don't have much choice. Sorry, you don't.

[400Years]

12. I'm not rich and I boycott walmart

so I guess I don't exist.

Having said that I could give two shits if one of Dean's aides picked up some crap there. mountain, molehill, you know.

[wmills551]

13. Ok, some none rich people support

the boycotting of Walmart. For the most part they are young and not supporting anyone but themselves. The vast majority of people who "boycott" Walmart would not be caught dead in one anyway. They make no true sacrifice. It is a great sacrifice for many low income parents to avoid walmart, especially when they live in rural areas.

[IndianaGreen]

20. I have two kids to feed

and I cannot afford the Marsh or the Kroger supermarket for essential food items. My paycheck only goes so far, particularly now with the high gas and energy prices.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

10. Frankly, it's inexcusable, just like

it's inexcusable when I have to go to Wally World to get a whole beef brisket or a pork shoulder since precisely NONE of the other local grocers will stock it, because they've been priced out of the market by Wally World. That's how monopolism works.

I'd say, in my own defense, it's a little different when you're going there for copy paper or plastic cups. That's just a matter of trying to save a nickel on the backs of some poor people.

In the long run, it might do us well to send a polite but firm note to our progressive leaders, asking them to take a "No Wal-Mart Pledge," or to commit to staying out of the Black Hole of Bentonville unless it can be demonstrated that there was absolutely no other alternative.

[Andromeda]

14. Oh, who in the hell cares!

Geez, talk about minutiae. People on fixed incomes and families who are on tight budgets probably shop at WalMart because they can get some items cheaper.

I can get some items at my nearest WalMart far cheaper than anywhere else. I price shop so I go to many different stores to get the best buy.

Some people shouldn't be so judgemental.

[Larkspur]

15. So what? I buy my cat food and cat litter from Walmart

[Algorem]

16. The Walton family's probably the biggest beneficiaries of Maoism.

pretty silly shituation

[eridani]

17. Jeebus people! The campaign budget was $10 million ferchrissakes!

And that means that 0.005% of the total campaign budget was spent at WalMart, probably by some aide that was in a hurry. For Dean $5000 is some fraction of a number much larger.

Mostly they didn't shop at WalMart. And they don't have much control over what decentralized volunteers do. We still used the buttons that somebody goofed up on and had made at a non-union shop.

Kucinich also has a policy of riding only in American cars, which I'm sure he can't follow through with 100% of the time. Out here in Puget Sound Prefecture, we couldn't always meet that requirement.

[HughBeaumont]

18. Nitpicking, as USUAL, by one of Machaskee's little GOP-bitches.

I've had to suffer through Stephen Koff's bullshite for the past couple of years and this idiot is probably one of the PD's most insufferable Bushbots next to Kevin O'Brien. This non-story is the latest in a series of shots against Democrats that this hack has spewed. He also tried to blast Teresa Heinz-Kerry for owning Wal-Mart stock once.

What's hilarious is that he relies on the equally RW-biased factcheck.org for his "information".

He also had the audacity to run a story praising job offshoring in a paper whose county was the worst hit in Ohio for job losses during his hero's administration. What's worse, the article made no damned sense. Direct Foreign Investment is NOT the same thing as offshore outsourcing. AT ALL. No one from a foreign country loses a job and is forced to start all over in their 40s and 50s due to DFI. One country's middle class isn't being destroyed to prop up anothers due to DFI. One country's ability to create new industries isn't being sent overseas due to DFI. It isn't the same thing. Naturally, my LTTE calling him on his stupidity of course didn't get published in Little Alex's rag.

[IndianaGreen]

19. as well as Kerry, Clark, Emily's List, etc.

and probably as well as all the low-income and working poor families that cannot afford to shop elsewhere.