Three workers from U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s campaign were waiting outside to protest a Ralph Nader press conference in Hartford today where the former Green Party Presidential candidate criticized one of Lieberman’s endorsements.
The literature the trio handed out said, “Ralph Nader has made a career of attacking the Democratic Party.” “Want to be angry at someone about George Bush? Talk to Ralph Nader he elected him.” The literature was paid for by the Friends of Joe Lieberman. Inside the Central Baptist Church, Nader had just finished remarking to a small crowd about how there are two kinds of Democrats, corporate Democrats and progressive Democrats. Lieberman he said is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s favorite corporate Democrat, and is only one of two Democratic senators to receive the endorsement of an organization that represents the pursuit of corporate greed and power at taxpayers expense. Nader said a chamber endorsement leads to more business campaign contributions and other activities such as mass mailings, phone calls, and media strategies that involve dirty tricks against opponents. According to Open Secrets, Lieberman’s biggest contributors in the business world so far have been Lehman Brothers, a global investment banking firm, followed by United Technologies Corporation, aerospace and engineering company. Would Nader goes as far as to endorse Lieberman’s challenger Lamont? “I hope he wins the primary,” Nader said. He said he doesn’t generally endorse candidates he doesn’t know personally, but it seems to him that Lamont is winning the “human energy” race.When asked if he would be voting in the primary, Nader said “I couldn’t stomach registering as a Democrat.” He said his father once filed a lawsuit to allow all taxpayers to vote in primaries, since all taxpayers pay for the polls to be open for just two parties. He said while the case was thrown out, he said he stills believes that’s how the system should operate. “What good are voter rights if they don’t have distinct choices in a campaign?” Nader asked. Ironically, Lieberman announced five weeks ago that he would petition to run without the party’s support if he failed to win the primary Aug. 8. Nader said he welcomes Lieberman, who he called half-Democrat and half-Republican, over to the third-party side of the fence. “He didn’t like what the third-party did in 2000 and 2004,” Nader said. But somehow that all gets swept under the rug when “it’s all about him.” See what happened when Nader went to New Haven later in the day.
