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Nader criticizes Clinton
Corporate watchdog stumps for senator's rival, says he may run for president again
By Elizabeth Benjamin, Capitol bureau
Albany Times Union |
ALBANY -- Consumer advocate and three-time unsuccessful presidential candidate Ralph Nader called U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a "corporate Democrat" Tuesday and urged New Yorkers to vote this fall for her Green Party challenger, Howie Hawkins.
Nader said he hasn't ruled out a fourth bid for the White House in 2008 and will decide in the middle of next year. That could put him in direct competition with Clinton, widely viewed as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Nader said he believes Clinton should admit to New Yorkers that she intends to run for president and thus won't serve out another full six-year term if re-elected this fall.
"They are already planning her campaign," Nader said. "There is no doubt in the world. You couldn't get any odds in Las Vegas on this."
Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson refused to respond to any of Nader's comments.
Nader, who ran on the Green Party line in 2000 and is still blamed by many Democrats for Al Gore's loss in that election, said he expects Clinton will win a Democratic primary if her opponents are "three other white men."He said he expects her to face U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the general election, and was unsure who might win that contest.
Nader, who ran for president as a Green in 1996 and as an independent in 2004, was in Albany to endorse Hawkins and attend a $55-a-head lunch fundraiser for him at a local Indian restaurant. At a news conference, Nader said Clinton had put the interests of corporations -- particularly campaign contributors -- ahead of people.
"Hillary Clinton has surrendered her integrity, her principles and her past beliefs in order to gain the arrogance of power and what she expects to be a coronation on Election Day in New York state," Nader said. "Don't let her get away with it."Nader and Hawkins called on Clinton to debate not only her Republican and Conservative challenger, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, but her four minor party opponents. Her campaign recently said she would debate Spencer but hasn't agreed to a date.
Clinton refused to debate -- and would not even acknowledge -- her Democratic anti-war primary challenger, Jonathan Tasini, who lost with roughly 17 percent of the vote on Sept. 12. On Tuesday, Tasini refused to endorse Clinton for re-election, urging his supporters to "vote their conscience" in the general election.
"Every vote that is not cast for the incumbent is a clear repudiation of an immoral war," Tasini said. Asked for a reaction to Tasini, Wolfson told the Associated Press, "Who cares?"
Hawkins, who also opposes the Iraq war, urged Democrats to vote Green in November, in part to protest the war, but also to demonstrate their strength in preparation for the 2008 presidential election."There's a fight over the heart and soul of the Democratic Party," Hawkins said. "They're going to get taken for granted in 2008 if they don't speak out now; if you go quietly into the night, no one will know you protested." |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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