>Are you saying that the GOP would have fought less hard to get fast track
if
>President Gore was promoting it?
Demonstrably so, since they got less votes for it under Clinton than they did under Bush.
For years, third party folks said that Clinton's election made NAFTA easier to pass. Well, here we had an almost perfect comparison-- two votes for Fast Track, one under Clinton, then one under Bush. Under the first situation, it failed; under the second, it passed.
>Plus, if Nader is the bloody shirt that you are going to wave every time
the
>DP leadership fails, then Ralph is doing you more of a favor than you
think.
As for the Dem leadership, just that statement shows that it is the third party folks in denial.
In the House, the Dem leadership fought hard against passage and 187 Dems voted against Fast Track passage; only 27 Dems defected on the issue, the smallest percentage on any trade vote in memory. See http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2002&rollnumber=370. Now the Senate is dominated by farm state legislators who favor trade legislation, so it always has an easier passage there, but even there the vote was only 64 votes for passage, almost within range of filibuster.
The problem was that the GOP voted overwhelmingly for passage because they had a rightwing President pushing for passage.
Hey, I'd far prefer Nader over Gore for President-- of course the latter was a lousy candidate. I made money off of Seth Ackerman because I was one of the only people on the list who insisted he was so lousy that he could blow it. But that's rrelevant.
Gore is not a member of the progressive movement and no one says otherwise. Ralph Nader is. He picked a lousy strategy and is now supporting a Green candidate against Wellstone. I sure as hell criticize Gore among moderate Dems for their strategy in supporting Gore, but I'll equally criticize leftists for their strategy in supporting Nader.
The difference is that a lot of moderate Dems I know regret Gore's candidacy. Most of the Nader folks are still helplessly in denial for their role in Bush's regime.
-- Nathan Newman