A Final Repudiation

I confess: a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I worked for Ralph Nader, as a lowly but proud peon helping to lobby Congress for consumer protection, environmental protection, progressive taxation, all that good stuff. Ralph appeared to be for real. He lived modestly, almost ascetically. He did nothing but work.

Now, he wasn't exactly into grassroots organizing. Congress Watch, where I worked, set up so-called "Congress Watch Locals" to lobby their Reps on Ralph's issues, but then the locals started trying to promote their own issues and Mark Green (yep, that Mark Green) who was then Director of CW started complaining about "the tail wagging the dog." Ralph wasn't exactly into organizational democracy either. He made all the decisions and he told everybody what to do. He even fired a guy for trying to start a union.

Still, I always figured he was on the right side of the issues. But then, like most people who don't want to be ruled by murderous thieves, pathological liars, and religious fanatics, I was fairly annoyed with him for his pointless, egomaniacal 2004 presidential campaign.

Now Ralph, you're in the dumper. The crusader for safe tires and comprehensible airline pricing has issued a joint press release with, get this, Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute, calling upon "the Florida Courts and Governor Jeb Bush to take any legal action available to let Terri Schiavo live. A profound injustice is being inflicted on Terri Schiavo, Nader and Smith asserted today. Worse, this slow death by dehydration is being imposed upon her under the color of law, in proceedings in which every benefit of the doubt and there are many doubts in this case, has been given to her death, rather than her continued life."

If you just ate poison, and you need an emetic, you can check it out here

Oh yeah -- what is the Discover Institute? It's a front for creationists. I don't know how to explain WTF is going on here, but you might want to ask Jessie Jackson. Brother Jessie just got done putting Michael Jackson on his radio program, where he compared himself to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he's down in Florida doing joint appearances with Randall Terry. Is there something in the water?