Nader may run for Senate from Connecticut

[thoughtone]

source: Politico

Could Ralph Nader reprise his spoiler role at the expense of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)?

The consumer crusader, perennial presidential aspirant and Winsted, Connecticut native says lots of people are asking him to run for the Senate against Dodd in 2010 -- and he isn't saying no just yet.

"You can't believe the number of people of asking me [to run]... Right now I'd say I'm agnostic," Nader told me earlier today, asked about rumors he'd run an independent, siphoning off liberal votes Dodd needs.

"I'm totally neutral, but I'm hearing the same things you are hearing."

The 75-year-old Nader is still registered as a voter in the state, making him eligible to run, according to the elections division of the Connecticut Secretary of State's office.

Nader says he first heard the idea back in April, when Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer editor Keith Burris penned a column urging "Run, Ralph, run," and blasting Dodd for his role in the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.

Nader's entry as a third party candidate would be terrible news for Dodd, who is hoping to energize his liberal base in possible match-ups against GOP challengers Rob Simmons and Linda McMahon, who lead him in public polls.

Nader says he personally likes Dodd and met with him more than six months ago for an hour in hopes of getting the Senate banking chairman to sign off on Nader's plan to create an independent Financial Consumer Assocation, which Nader thinks is needed to keep mutual fund managers and pension executives honest.

Dodd was sympathetic and said he would look into it -- but the commission wasn't part of the legislative package Dodd introduced earlier this week. Nader, whom many Dems blame for delivering the '00 election to George W. Bush, says Dodd's bill was a good start, but lacks teeth on regulating derivatives and other financial products.

"Nothing in the bill would put the screws to the heads of the pension or the mutual funds," Nader said. "I'm trying to get Dodd to do the right thing... Right now, they are not serious" about tightening regulations, he said of Senate Democrats.

He said his focus, at the moment, was on bolstering the reforms, not electoral politics.

Nader also faulted Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who first introduced the financial consumer association idea as a House member 24 years ago, but has been silent on the issue this year.

"Schumer graduated Harvard Law School years after I did, and now he's not returning my calls," Nader added with a chuckle.

"I guess he thinks he's a big shot.

 

[QueEx]

A perennial loser.

 

[thoughtone]

A perennial loser.

He's a native Yankee and has done more good than any current senator for sure!

 

[QueEx]

Perennial loser.

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>
Ralph Nader Rejoins the Tea Parties</font size></center>

The left's anger over the public option and the anti-Obama revolt is long overdue, says Ralph Nader. Benjamin Sarlin talks to the self-professed "pioneer" of the current progressive rage.

Democrats are steaming over the White House’s capitulation to liberal nemesis Joe Lieberman’s demands to remove a public option and Medicare buy-in from the Senate’s heath-care bill. Progressive figures including Howard Dean and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas have gone so far as to suggest scrapping the bill entirely and starting over, sparking rebukes from White House officials like David Axelrod, who called such a move “insane” in a Morning Joe interview on MSNBC on Thursday. With polls already showing many Democrats planning on sitting out 2010 midterms, the conflict has drawn comparisons to Ralph Nader’s third-party run in 2000, which many Democrats blame for tipping the election to George W. Bush—and for leaving Lieberman to wreak havoc in the Senate.

This is all good news to Nader, a vocal critic of the bill who considers the health-care debate a turning point in the left’s relationship to Obama.

<center><font size="3">“This is what I meant a year ago when I said
the next year will determine whether Barack
Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before
the demands of the corporations.”</center></font size>


The four-time presidential candidate said he was particularly encouraged Thursday morning, when he read Dean’s op-ed in The Washington Post.

“Good for Howard Dean,” Nader said, adding that his only criticism was the former Democratic National Committee chairman didn’t go after the bill hard enough

Nader favors a single-payer health-care system, but said he objected in particular to the Senate bill for many of the same reasons expressed by Dean. He reserved his harshest criticism for the individual mandate, which commentators like Ezra Klein say is necessary in some form to keep premiums at acceptable rates but which Nader says forces Americans to buy substandard insurance.

“It doesn’t have a drug-reimportation provision, it doesn’t have a public option, it doesn’t have a Medicare buy-in, and in the House they lost a number of provisions,” he said. “Basically it’s a massive new subsidy to the health-insurance industry to deliver millions of customers, including those who will be forced to buy junk insurance policies.”

Proponents of the bill have noted that many Americans with preexisting conditions will no longer be barred from purchasing insurance, putting a stop to one of the most reviled practices under the current system. Nader said he believes the bill still doesn’t go far enough to protect Americans from discrimination, citing Dean’s argument in his op-ed that even though those with preexisting conditions might benefit, insurance companies could still charge older customers rates up to three times higher than younger ones.

Nader instead recommended that legislators and the White House scrap the bill entirely and embark on a nationwide tour to generate grassroots support for single-payer health care, which they would then attempt to pass through reconciliation, which requires only a bare majority in the Senate. Given the narrow margins for even the House bill, which requires only a majority to pass, the prospect seems politically unthinkable—but Nader insists that it could be done.

“You go all out, you use your evidence, you put your human-interest stories in the papers, the people who are suffering, who’ve been denied benefits, who were told they couldn’t get into the hospital without writing a huge check first, and you lead! You lead!” he said, his voice rising to a shout.

Nader, who has been viciously critical of Obama since before his inauguration, said he was encouraged to see many of the president’s campaign allies beginning to turn on his agenda.

“Is the title of your article ‘I told you so?’” he asked. “This is what I meant a year ago when I said the next year will determine whether Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations that are running our country or he’ll be an Uncle Sam standing up for the American people.”

Nader cited a number of cases in which he was encouraged to see people he considered loyal Democrats stand up to their lawmakers on principle.

“Markos, he finally turns around—this guy is an indentured servant of the Democratic Party, and he’s finally breaking. [Arianna Huffington] is chirping up,” he said. “And they go a long way—they’ve given Obama the biggest elastic band in Democratic Party history and it’s reaching the point of snapping.”

He added that MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann were also “starting to break,” although he acknowledged that he still has trouble getting invited on their shows.

Nader, who is considering a third-party run in Connecticut against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), said the health-care revolt has generated more interest in his campaign, but he has yet to make up his mind if he’ll run—or if he’ll seek the White House again in 2012. As for whether growing disillusionment with the two major parties might provide him with fuel for a comeback after being cast as a pariah in 2000, Nader suggested it might be a bridge too far.

“The person who told them the earliest is decisively ignored,” he said. “But that’s the burden of a pioneer. It’s always been in politics.”

Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-...ng-obamas-health-care-woes/?cid=hp:mainpromo5

 

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>
Nader's Senate prospects
hit snag with Dodd's retirement</font size></center>



McClatchy Newspapers
By Maria Recio
January 8, 2010


WASHINGTON — What's up with Ralph Nader?

The three-time presidential candidate and consumer crusader, mostly under the political radar while hustling a new book of fiction, also has been quietly thinking about doing something completely different: running for the U.S. Senate.

The intriguing prospect of running against embattled Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., in his home state this year has hit a snag, however. Dodd made the surprise announcement Wednesday that he'll be retiring, leaving the race open to a strong Democrat, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

That has Nader, 75, known for his "spoiler" role in the 2000 presidential election, re-thinking his chances.

"The attraction is a three-way race," Nader said in a telephone interview. His voice raspy from a cold, Nader — "I never get sick" — spoke from his home in Washington. "It's less likely to have a three-way race with such a strong candidate."

Blumenthal, who's held the attorney general position since he was first elected in 1990, has a reputation for pursuing consumer and environmental causes.

Dodd was a more inviting target for Nader, who's among the critics of the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee for his handling of the financial crisis and for benefiting from a favorable mortgage from scandal-ridden Countrywide Financial Corp.

Nader was looking at a contest as the third option between a weakened Dodd and a Republican opponent; among the candidates is Linda McMahon, former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

In the 2000 election, Nader, the Green Party nominee, earned more than 97,000 votes in Florida. Democratic nominee Al Gore lost the state — and thus the presidency — to George W. Bush by 537 votes.

Nader hates the "spoiler" label, arguing that a number of factors were in play, including that Gore lost his home state of Tennessee.

As for a Connecticut run, Nader seems untroubled that he's primarily Washington-based, saying that he's often at his family's Winsted, Conn., home and is, in fact, registered to vote in the Nutmeg State.

Even if this year's candidacy may seem remote, Nader clearly has the bug, even if it means he has to wait until 2012.

"The main thing is Lieberman," he said.

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat turned independent, has enraged liberals for his closeness to Republicans, even campaigning with GOP presidential nominee John McCain in 2008, and for supporting Republican positions. He's up for re-election in two years.

In the meantime, Nader continues to lecture and make appearances for his causes, such as single-payer health care, and has just finished a 30-city tour promoting his first work of fiction, "Only the Super Rich Can Save Us," published by Seven Stories Press.

The book uses real-life characters, such as Warren Buffett and Warren Beatty, who use their power and money for the common good.

Nader's selling strategy was to sit in airport bookstores, where the instantly recognizable consumer advocate immediately drew attention.

"I was in Vegas as the National Association of Realtors' convention let out," he said. "I could have sat there for eight hours, signing books."

According to Ruth Weiner, a spokeswoman for the publisher, Nader's 733-page book has sold "incredibly well" and is about two-thirds of the way through its 30,000 printing.

However, political expert Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said that when it came to politics, Nader's career was kaput.

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">"His role in American politics is very minor to nonexistent,"</span> said Sabato, who conceded, "He'll always have a platform."



http://www.mcclatchydc.com/104/story/81970.html?storylink=omni_popular

 

[thoughtone]

<font size="5"><center>
Nader's Senate prospects
hit snag with Dodd's retirement</font size></center>



McClatchy Newspapers
By Maria Recio
January 8, 2010



<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">"His role in American politics is very minor to nonexistent,"</span> said Sabato, who conceded, "He'll always have a platform."



http://www.mcclatchydc.com/104/story/81970.html?storylink=omni_popular

Reagan ran for president twice before winning. Nader would be a good candidate in 2012 when Lieberman is run out.