Defiant Nader ignores Democrats' fears in key states

From National Correspondent Bob Franken

MADISON, Wisconsin (CNN) -- Ralph Nader's Green Party run for the White House has Democrats sweating in key states like Wisconsin, which will swing 11 electoral votes to the winner of the presidential race.

Citing a list of positions where Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush agree on largely conservative positions, the longtime consumer advocate argued Wednesday in Madison that Democrats and Republicans would both report to "the same corporate paymasters" after the election.

Green Party candidate Ralph Nader campaigns Wednesday in Wisconsin

"I'll be very sorry if either of them are elected, because that would mean the permanent corporate government would continue to be more powerful in Washington," he said.

But Democrats worry that Nader's quest, which they so long considered tilting at windmills, could topple Gore's bid for the presidency. Nader hovers around 5 percent in Wisconsin polls, Democrats are gripped with fear that the Nader vote could throw this state and others into the Republican column in November.

Nader has a ragtag organization riddled with inexperience and held a much smaller rally than the 15,000 Gore drew last week at the same place, on the steps of the Wisconsin statehouse. But Nader was still able to draw about 2,000 supporters, and he's giving the Democrats fits in Wisconsin.

Now, many Gore supporters who backed Nader's causes in the past -- including a group of Sierra Club leaders who confronted the Nader crowd Wednesday and were heckled with cries of "Liar, Liar" -- are scrambling to head him off. But some analysts here believe the Democrats may be more worried about Nader than they need to be.

"Nader support tends to be relatively soft in Wisconsin," St. Norbert College pollster David Wagy said. "... With that soft Nader support, I think that some of those Nader voters are going to come back to Al Gore."

Nader bristles at what he calls a "betrayal" by progressive Democrats who have turned on him -- particularly abortion rights leaders who have questioned his comments on abortion. They warn that a Bush win would lead to conservative Supreme Court justices reversing decisions like Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion rights.

Nader dismissed that argument, noting that many Democrats voted to confirm conservative justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court while he and other liberal activists opposed them -- "And now they've got the temerity to lecture me about the Supreme Court?"

Nader considers abortion a settled question, and that any GOP attempt to overturn Roe would be a political disaster. But the more pressure he gets to fold, the more defiant he gets.

"Al Gore thinks he is entitled to your votes. Al Gore thinks that we're supposed to be helping him get elected," Nader told supporters at a rally in Madison. "I've got news for Al Gore -- if you can't beat the bumbling Texas governor with that record, you ought to go back to Tennessee."