{news} published LTE Hartford Courant: "Ralph and Joe: No Comparison"

[Green Party-CT]

Ralph And Joe: No Comparison

The Aug. 20 Commentary article by corporate lobbyist Toby Moffett, "Lieberman Imitates Nader," misses the mark on many points.

As one of the first people who asked Nader to run for president, after I founded the Green Party of Rhode Island, I can say that thousands of Greens asked Nader to run and address issues that were quite different than those of the two-headed monster we Greens call "The Republi-crats." Thousands asking someone to run is quite different than Lieberman's attempt to play the system by running after losing in a fair fight.

Moffett says Nader ran in 2000 as an "independent," when he really was the Green Party nominee. This is an important point because we didn't work to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to get Nader on as a non-party candidate. Green ballot lines and candidates won across the country because Nader topped our ticket line.

Moffett wrongly blames Nader's 97,000 Green Party votes in Florida as the single factor in the Bush 2000 win and conveniently leaves out that several states were also swung to the Democrats by the Reform Party candidate. And Lieberman's Democratic Leadership Council's study said that many people would not have voted if Nader and the Greens were not on the ballot in 2000. Almost 3 million votes for Nader in 2000 showed that the people want something different.

Moffett shamelessly boasts that he worked to keep Nader off the ballot in 2004. Did anyone here work to keep Lieberman off the ballot or out of any debates like Moffett and his Democrats did to Nader and the Greens? We Greens believe Lieberman had a fair chance to run and debate, and he spent more than $4 million to get his message out, but he lost. Moffett's party spent millions in lawsuits to challenge and keep Nader off the ballot; we Greens will not file a lawsuit to keep Lieberman out of the 2006 race, despite his loss in the primary.

Mr. Moffett overstates again when he claims Republican "operatives" were involved in the Nader campaign. A handful of Republicans may have given Nader money, just as Democrats gave to Bush and Republicans gave to Kerry in small numbers, but Moffett makes it sound like Republicans were almost pulling strings in a conspiracy behind the scenes. Nader has worked with many people from all parties to get landmark legislation done in more than 40 years of service, so is it so strange to think some might give him a donation?

Moffett may believe in the fairy tale that we only need two parties, but Ralph Nader had nothing to do with Joe Lieberman's self-centered attempt to keep his job. Comparing Lieberman to Nader is foolish.

Tim McKee
Manchester
The writer is the national committee representative for the Green Party of Connecticut and worked on Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign.

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