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Nader: Clinton's running and it could be her versus McCain
By Marc Humbert
AP Political Writer |
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Consumer activist Ralph Nader, not ruling out a fourth run for president himself, said Tuesday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was already running for the White House and could face Sen. John McCain in the 2008 election.
"If she is a candidate in the Democratic primary with three other white men, she is going to win the primary," Nader said during a campaign stop in Albany in which he endorsed Clinton's Green Party challenger, Howie Hawkins,in this year's New York Senate race. "Then, it's down to her versus McCain."
Nader, the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2000, said he wasn't sure who would win a Clinton-McCain showdown.
The three-time losing presidential contender said he would probably decide by the middle of next year whether to make another third-party run, but had no doubt about Clinton's intentions.
"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."
Nader complained that Clinton had sold out to corporate interests in pursuit of campaign contributions and political power.
"She's become a profound corporate Democrat marching arm in arm with major corporate lobbyists toward the White House instead of representing the people's interests," Nader said.
Clinton campaign adviser Howard Wolfson declined to comment on Nader's remarks.
Meanwhile, the anti-Iraq war activist who was crushed by Clinton in last week's Democratic Senate primary said Tuesday he would not support her re-election bid and called on his supporters to vote against her.
"I urge my supporters and the people who voted for me to vote their conscience," said Jonathan Tasini. "Every vote that is not cast for the incumbent is a clear repudiation of an immoral war."
The reaction from the Clinton camp was curt: "Who cares?" said Wolfson.
Tasini, a former president of the National Writers' Union, did not endorse any specific candidate in the Senate race, which many see as a prelude to a 2008 White House run by the former first lady.
Asked Monday night on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" about the prospect of his wife making such a run, former President Clinton said once again that he didn't know if she would run or not.
"I know this," he added. "If she did run and win, she'd be great; she'd be really good."
Among others, Clinton faces former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, a conservative Republican supporter of the war, and Hawkins, an anti-war Green Party contender, in the November election.
Hawkins held a fundraiser with Nader in Albany before their joint news conference at which Nader took Clinton to task for accepting hefty corporate campaign contributions and said Hawkins should be in any Senate debates she agrees to.
In the campaign leading up to her primary victory, Clinton refused to debate Tasini and largely ignored his candidacy.
"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."
Tasini brought up the debate issue again on Tuesday.
"I intend on continuing to raise the issues I care about in the coming weeks and beyond," he said. "First and foremost, I will lobby for and support the inclusion in all public debates of all legally qualified candidates, regardless of poll numbers or money raised or spent."
In the Democratic primary, Clinton collected almost 600,000 votes to fewer than 120,000 for Tasini.
Appearing on a radio talk show Tuesday, Republican Spencer expressed frustration that Clinton has refused to be pinned down about when and where she would debate him. Aides have said she will debate, but have offered no specifics.
"Hillary Clinton is hiding and sending out her little talking dogs to bark about John Spencer," the GOP challenger told Albany's WROW-AM.
Spencer took Clinton to task for a host of things, including what he said was her failure to defend Pope Benedict XVI, who is under attack from Muslims for comments he made last week about Islam.
"I call on Senator Clinton, if she's going to be a leader, to stand up right now on behalf of Catholics and defend the pope," said Spencer, a Roman Catholic. "I'm appalled no one is defending the pope."
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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