Nader Returns to Congress With No Apologies

Thomas Ferraro / Reuters 8feb01

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader, seeking to reconnect with angry former Democratic allies, visited Capitol Hill on Thursday for the first time since the November election which some party faithful think he handed to Republican George W. Bush.

Though many Democrats blame Nader for Bush's narrow presidential victory over Al Gore by drawing off votes with his own third party campaign, the longtime consumer advocate said House of Representatives Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt told him they must work together again.

``He essentially said he doesn't buy the argument we cost them the election, and even congratulated me on my campaign,'' said Nader, who ran as the Green Party's nominee.

``He made it clear he doesn't look favorable at the back biting that is going on, the exclusionary backbiting that some Democrats in the House and Senate have engaged in against us,'' Nader said in an interview with Reuters.

Nader, who has worked with Democrats on Capitol Hill on a variety of fronts since the 1960s, from car safety to clean air, said he visited with Gephardt at the invitation of the Missouri Democrat.

Gephardt aides had no immediate comment, other than confirm that the House leader met in his office with the former Green Party presidential nominee.

Nader polled only a small percentage of the votes in any state but with the race so close Democrats felt he might have had an impact on Gore.

Polls have shown that nearly 40 percent of Nader's voters would have backed Gore if the consumer advocate had not run for president, compared with about 25 percent for Bush.

If that had been true in Florida and the voters had gone that way, the state that ultimately won the election for Bush would have put Gore in the White House.

Nader said he owes Democrats no apologies.

He contends a number of other factors cost Gore, including the former vice president failing to win his home state of Tennessee and as well as former President Clinton's home state of Arkansas.

He said Gore should also blame Democrat-controlled Florida localities for failing to move quickly on a vote recount.

``These were his own people,'' Nader said.

Regardless, a number of Democrats blame Nader for Bush's razor-close victory, and the Green Party candidate believes that is why doors on Capitol Hill have been shut in his face.

Nader said he asked to testify last month against Bush's nominations of John Ashcroft as attorney general, Gale Norton as interior secretary and Spencer Abraham as energy secretary.

But he said he was denied the opportunity by then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and then-Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat.

Leahy, in paraphrasing Nader's contention during the campaign there was no real difference between Gore and Bush, said, ``Maybe his interest in testifying means that a president's Cabinet and judicial nominees do matter, after all.''

Nader said he appreciated Gephardt's overture to him and desire to work him on a number of fronts, from opposition to Bush's proposed tax cuts that Democrats say would go largely to the rich to electoral and campaign-finance reform.

``Gephardt is a sensible person who keeps his eye on policy objectives,'' Nader said.

Gephardt may have a tough time convincing some House Democrats to again work with Nader.

``Why should we embrace him?'' asked Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat and the city of Washington's nonvoting delegate in Congress.

Norton said she does blame Nader for Gore's defeat. But when told of Gephardt's desire to reach out to the consumer advocate, she said that would be fine with her.

``I would support any effort by leadership to say to Ralph Nader, 'let's learn from the last experience, let's see how we can work together again as we have for the last quarter century,''' Norton said.

``We are working with Bush now, why not work with Nader,'' she said.