WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- Former Democratic Party front-runner Howard Dean assailed Ralph Nader Friday for conducting what the former Vermont governor termed a disingenuous campaign that would ultimately help George W. Bush hold onto the presidency.
Dean condemned efforts to keep Nader off the ballot in key swing states, telling a National Press Club audience "I don't think we ought to stop Ralph Nader, I just don't want you to vote for him."
Nader responded by calling his candidacy "an underdog campaign for millions of underdogs in this country."
Dean, who rode a populist campaign to the top of the polls until actual voting started in the Democratic Party primary season, and Nader, an independent candidate for president, traded barbs on National Public Radio's "Justice Talking" program.
Dean criticized Nader's drive to get on the ballot in all 50 states, calling it "fatally flawed" for its reliance on conservative voters and "illegal" in some circumstances. Dean said election-law violations are a predictable result of paying outside companies to obtain signatures from ballot petitions.
Nader defended his use of paid petitioners to obtain signatures, calling it a necessary function within the two-party system that works to keep outside candidates off the ballot.
Dean also accused Nader of accepting support from what Dean called an anti-gay organization, the Oregon Family Council. The organization, which supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, has urged its members to sign petitions to get Nader on the ballot in Oregon in hopes of taking votes from presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
Nader renounced the group when prompted by Dean, but said he would continue to accept donations and support from conservatives.
"We take all legal donations," he said, adding that his party appeals to many conservatives as well as liberals.
"Republicans are human beings, too," he said.
Much of the debate showcased the differences between a pragmatic Dean and the idealistic Nader and their approaches to November's presidential election.
"We live in a real world," Dean said, supporting his endorsement of Kerry. "We have to make real choices."
Nader reiterated his refusal to pull out of the race, saying he expects to be on the ballot in more than 40 states and will not remove himself from contention in any of them regardless of poll results.
While Dean admitted that Nader was one of his heroes, he pleaded with the longtime consumer advocate to abandon his candidacy and support Kerry in order to defeat President Bush.
"We cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good," Dean said of Nader's campaign. "The stakes are too high."
But Nader held to his message about giving voters "more voices and more choices," saying he would never abandon his supporters.
"We're building beyond November," he said.
NPR correspondent and "Justice Talking" host Margot Adler, the debate's moderator, noted the similarities between the outsider campaigns of Nader and Dean in this year's race. Nader seized the opportunity to cast Dean as two different politicians: one as Kerry's opponent, the other as his supporter.
"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 consistently reiterated his stance against corporate interests in politics, accusing Democrats of being as beholden to special interests as Republicans. But Dean continually drew large distinctions between the two parties and particularly Kerry and Bush.
"In the long run, this is about American people who can't defend themselves," Dean said calling out Bush for ignoring the poor and those without health insurance.
"The people I care about are served better by a John Kerry presidency than a George Bush candidacy," Dean said.
In comments to reporters after the debate, Nader said it is never appropriate to choose between the lesser of two evils in a presidential race.
"You never postpone democracy," he said, refusing to concede his candidacy in order to help Kerry defeat Bush.
When asked if he had any political advice for Nader, the sometimes excitable Dean offered two words: "Lighten up."
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