Dean called Nader out on his corporate ties at a debate in 04

madfloridian

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Mon Jan-08-07 10:09 PM
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Dean called Nader out on his corporate ties at a debate in 04

Nader is already assuming the Democrats will not produce. This is way too early. Way too soon. He has his own problems with the so-called "corporate greasers", as he refers to them in this article.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0106-20.htm

Early and troubling signals from Capitol Hill indicate that the Democrats are not going to move to remove the brazen Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, are not going to go after the huge waste and redundancy in military weapons contracts rendered obsolete with the demise of the Soviet Union, are not going to end massive corporate welfare, as we know it, and are not going to propose a serious crackdown on widespread corporate crime, fraud and abuse.

Granted, the Democrats are making big noises about ethics reform, moving to ban a variety of corporate freebies from corporate jet travel to gifts and dinners. But the 800 pound gorilla is big business money in political campaigns. The gorilla seems not to worry. Fund-raising dinners are already starting up and the corporate greasers are readjusting their attentions to the receptive majority Democrats.

Was it Candy Crowley who already called them the "do nothing" congress? I mean, good grief, give the guys a chance.

I think there is a little bit of hypocrisy now for Nader to be criticizing Democrats before they even get started. Here you go...Salon covered the debate well.

Dean hits Nader where it hurts.
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/07/10/debate/print.html

July 10, 2004

Howard Dean wasted little time getting to the point in a debate with third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader on Friday. After listening to Nader's standard posturing about how only he can save the Democratic Party and the nation from the "corporate interests" that have consumed politics and government, the former Vermont governor struck hard: "Ralph, I think you're being disingenuous about your candidacy this year."

In his rapid-fire delivery, the onetime Democratic presidential front-runner rattled off all the ways he saw Nader as a hypocrite: Nearly half the signatures Nader gathered in a failed attempt to get on the Arizona ballot were from Republicans. A significant amount of his campaign kitty comes from Bush-Cheney donors. And, said Dean, "you accepted the support of a right-wing, fanatic Republican group that is antigay in order to help you get on the ballot in Oregon" -- a reference to the Oregon Family Council, which produces a "Christian Voter Guide" and campaigns against gay marriage.

"This is not going to help the progressive cause in America," Dean continued. "The thing that upsets me so much about this is, you have the right to ... get in bed with whoever you want to, but don't call the Democratic Party full of corporate interests. They have their problems, we all have ours, none of us are pure. And this campaign of yours is far from pure."

Dean's riff was greeted with gleeful applause, and Nader appeared momentarily shaken by its ferocity. Dean insisted, "My purpose here is not to smear Ralph Nader," which prompted Nader to respond sarcastically, "Oh, no. Not at all!"

So perhaps his criticism in Common Dreams of the Democrats who have not even started their 110th Congress yet....is a wee bit hypocritical.