>From: "Max Sawicky" <sawicky at bellatlantic.net>
>
>As the backbiting escalates, any
>Nader symp is likely to feel increasingly p.o.'ed at
>the statements of our pro-Gore comrades.
-I see the attacks on Nader as an increasingly vicious attempt at character -assassination, and I find it disgusting.
This is truly bizarre in the "folks can dish it out but they can't take it" category. Not only have the Naderites been accusing Gore and the Dems of every kind of political sell-out possible, but have mounted a rather high-profile personal attack on Gore as personally corrupt on behalf of Occidental Oil.
Those attacking Nader (including Gore himself) almost universally continue to say how much they respect his past political work but that they think his current campaign is radically misguided. They therefore attack the real or perceived assumptions of his strategy - a hardly libelous approach in a strategic debate and hardly character assassination.
The funniest thing about the outrage on this list about the attacks on Nader is that proud support for these "libels" about his strategy have been explicitly promoted by many of his supporters on this list, from dismissing the danger of a Bush Presidency to arguing that progressives would be more successful as an opposition under a GOP administration to arguing that abortion rights are under little danger from a GOP win.
Nader at this point is obviously running to defeat Gore by campaigning almost exclusively in the swing states this week, since if his goal was just to get 5% of the national vote, he could be campaigning in Massachusetts and Texas. Since Nader has declared explicit war on the Dems, it is childish to complain that the Dems have declared war on him and the Greens. Hell, take it as a compliment and have the courage of your strategy.
-- Nathan Newman