Alterman puts up $25k so Ralph & Al don't run again

[Peter K.]

Russ Smith in his New York Press column:
>[Eric] Alterman lurches on, making the unbelievable pledge that he'll spend
>$25,000 of his fortune (the beneficiary wasn't mentioned; perhaps a
>grant to fellow misanthropes like Mark Crispin Miller, Sean Wilentz
>and Todd Gitlin) if Nader promises not to run again in 2004. The
>Michael Moore-populist continues: "Come to think of it, I'd do the
>same for Al Gore. Anyone who allowed that election to be close enough
>to let Katherine Harris and the Supreme Court steal it for a guy like
>George Bush should not be allowed to run for anything more important
>than worst beard since Mick Jagger grew one.

Who does Alterman want? Lieberman? I went to a Nader "super" rally
not too far away at the Congress Theater (more Logan's Square than Wicker
Park for you Chicago neighborhood aficionados, not far from the Real World
folks, though). The place was packed and at  30 going on 31, I was much
older than most people there. Ani Difranco and Patti Smith played.


>I guess the grub isn't so swell on the Nation's troll-for-dollars
>cruises that Alterman attends, but I hear there's plenty of booze on
>hand. Just ask Molly Ivins or Christopher Hitchens, the Brit
>expatriate who delights Hardball's Chris Matthews with his witty
>Socialist crap, but will write for any publication, ideology be
>damned, that coughs up a paycheck.

What does that make Cockburn? (he writes for that Smith) So
Hitchens is a Socialist?

Peter