WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Howard Dean and Ralph Nader debated the propriety, from a liberal point of view, of the consumer-advocate's second bid for the presidency.
Dean, the former Democratic Party front-runner and a one-time favorite of progressives, said Nader's second run for the White House would manage only to help its current occupant stay there.
The physician and former Vermont governor also said Nader's drive to get on the ballot in all 50 states is "fatally flawed" for its reliance on conservative voters and is "illegal" in some circumstances.
Dean said breaches of election law would be the result of paying outside companies to obtain signatures from ballot petitions.
Nader, meanwhile, questioned Dean's left-wing credentials.
"You were an insurgent," Nader said of Dean's momentum before the Democratic primaries. "Now (you're) a detergent for the dirty linen of the Democratic Party."
Nader frequently charged that Democrats were as beholden to "corporate interests" as Republicans.
