Call me crazy, but I always thought being a third party candidate always meant working away from the other two parties. If that’s the case, I’d love to hear why a certain former consumer advocate is working alongside the Republican Party in states across the country. The latest example is Michigan.
Michigan Republicans are helping to gather signatures to place independent Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot in the battleground state, irritating Democrats who accuse the GOP of trying to pull votes away from candidate John F. Kerry.
“It’s another example of state Republicans willing to try every unethical trick in the book to hold power,” state Democratic Party Executive Chairman Mark Brewer said Thursday. “This clearly shows that a vote for Ralph Nader is a vote to reelect George Bush. The Republicans know that, and that’s why they are desperate to have Nader on the Michigan ballot.”
Greg McNeilly of the state Republican Party said the GOP was doing nothing wrong and that it hoped Nader would draw votes from Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts. Republicans will make sure Nader has more than the 30,000 valid signatures he needs by July 15 to qualify for the Michigan ballot, McNeilly said.
Third parties, Nader said a few days ago, are supposed to “push the two parties to pay attention to the needs of the people.” But instead, Nader has chosen to form a parasitic relationship with a party he claims to abhor. All the while, he wants to accuse Dems of “dirty tricks.”
Of course, it’s not just in Michigan.
The Nader campaign is working with Republicans in Oregon, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. And to make his efforts possible, Nader has also teamed up with a billionaire Republican fundraiser to finance his destructive endeavor.
So Nader needs to run because he doesn’t see a big enough difference between Dems and the GOP. In the meantime, his entire campaign apparatus has become a more-or-less official appendage to the Republican Party.
Maybe Howard Dean can get a good answer about all of this in today’s debate, but I’m not holding my breath.