Nader Accuses McAuliffe of Suppressing (2004) Votes

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Nader Accuses McAuliffe of Suppressing Votes
Anita Kumar

Consumer activist Ralph Nader accused Terry McAuliffe Thursday of orchestrating an effort to remove him from the presidential ballot in 2004 when McAuliffe was chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Nader said that McAuliffe offered him an unspecified amount of money to campaign in 31 states if Nader would agree to pull his campaign in 19 battleground states.

"When you get a call like that, first of all it's inappropriate,'' Nader said in an interview. "The other thing is if you don't immediately say no, it's like taffy, you get stuck with it."

The latest charge against McAuliffe, who is in a hotly-contested three-way Democratic primary for governor, calls into question -- again -- whether his political career is a liability for him as a candidate.

Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2009/05/post_228.html#more

[onehandle]

1. Onehandle Accuses Nader of destroying America to sate his ego. nt

[John Q. Citizen]

3. Well at least you have an original thought. i'd never heard that angle before.

[ro1942]

13. nader

nader has a lot more integrity than the dem. party, he represents what this country badly needs.

[Kahuna]

2. Mac's mistake was believing nader would play ball with Dems like he

did with repukes. Silly man.

[John Q. Citizen]

4. I'm sure if MAC had offered a contribution Nader would have accepted it. It was the strings that

Nader rejected.

I'm also confident that if the Repos offered Mac money in his campaign that he would accept it, just as Hillary did during her primary last year.

[Kahuna]

14. Suuure. nader was gleeful to accept bush's help in Florida in 2000.

You can stick up for that snake if you want to. He is worst than the dirt on my shoe to me.

[John Q. Citizen]

20. You can scaegoat away if it makes you feel better. It seems to.

i don't understand why it makes people feel better, but it sure seems to.

[hughee99]

7. The difference is, the repukes were paying Nader to do what he

wanted to do anyway, but didn't have the money for. McAuliffe was offering "hush money"

[bluestateguy]

5. Whatever Terry Mac did, it had to be done in the best interests of the country

Politics is a dirty business. Bush's "re" election had to be stopped; if Ralph Nader was treated unfairly in that endeavor than so be it.

[Cal Carpenter]

8. Right, because who needs democracy?

I don't understand this scapegoating of Nader. He had every right to run and people had every right to see his name on the ballots. It doesn't matter if he's an asshole. Scapegoating him is counterproductive to recognizing the real things Democrats need to do to win elections.

[bluestateguy]

11. Some things are more important than democracy

Prop 8 was passed by way of democracy; so were the 11 anti-gay marriage state initiatives in 2004.

[Cal Carpenter]

12. Do you hear yourself?

Look, our democracy is terribly flawed - there is no question that prop 8 and other anti-human-rights initiatives make it through the system corrupted by $$$ used to spread propaganda. That isn't democracy either. This is a serious problem but forgive me for not grasping how further suppression of democratic principles is the solution.

This party-over-principle attitude and irrational scapegoating is not going to keep people in the Democratic party, let alone attract new voters to the party.

[WriteDown]

19. The ends justify the means?

Wow...just wow.

[hugo_from_TN]

6. Bribing political opponents - nice.

[sharp_stick]

9. Ralph Nader...

simply needs to FOAD and the sooner the damned better.

[countingbluecars]

10. I'm not a big Nader fan,

but if this is true and it helps Virginians pick a candidate for governor who has a chance of winning-thanks.

[Captain Hilts]

15. I wish McAuliffe had been better at it! nt

[BrotherBuzz]

16. It's possible the republicans offered a deeper pocket

Nader loves money.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Most likely. R's really funded Nader and Sharpton. nt

[Lilith Velkor]

18. McAuliffe was successful in helping defeat Nader - instead of defeating Bush.

Way to go! :party:

[mod mom]

21. Terry MacAuliffe putting a D after his name brings shame to the Democratic Party. He's is cheap

hustler-imho.

[DumpDavisHogg]

22. McAuliffe supports misnamed "right to work" laws

Therefore, he can go screw himself.