Posted on 05/29/2009 11:11:12 AM PDT by lilylangtree
Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader went public Thursday with an allegation that Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe offered him campaign money to stay off the ballot in key states during the 2004 elections.
“Terry McAuliffe is slipperier than an eel in olive oil,” Nader said in an interview.
He said McAuliffe, who was the Democratic National Committee chairman at the time, had offered Nader’s campaign an unspecified amount of money, believed to be party funds, to spend in 31 states in exchange for an agreement to withdraw from 19 battleground states where he could potentially hurt Democrat John Kerry.
The allegation – which McAuliffe has not disputed – is the latest attempt to suggest that the candidate’s lengthy career as a confidant to President Bill Clinton and top party fundraiser could now be a political liability.
Ralph Nader does this ever so often and he is completely correct on this one!
So true and so hilarious. I'm not a Nader fan, but he nailed it.
Dan Rather, "I should have used that on George Bush & Dick Cheney".
McAuliffe is known as the Flim-Flam Man.
I sure do. Got caught up in that one while Terry the Pirate cleared out before the guano hit the fan via the same mechanism that sent Martha Stewart to prison.
I wish Nader had come forward with this sooner. This smells to high heaven. I’m sure Terry wasn’t working alone with his own money.
Democrats and payoffs are like the mob and shakedowns. They just go together.
I don’t agree at all with Nader’s politics, but I have always admired his tenacity. Since the Kennedy Administration, government officials have repeatedly tried to take him down and intimidate him and he never, ever quits. Would that some GOPers had the same moxie.
Suggesting McAuliff is a crook.................oh my!!!
We would have never believed such a thing.
Oh by the way, can we say.....Global Crossing???
So did Ralph report this to the FEC in 2004?
I don’t know why this would be illegal. The DNC can spend their campaign money as they see fit, and if they want to donate it to a candidate or in support of a candidate they can do so — nothing in the election law says you can only support people in your own party, or even that you can’t support an independent running against someone in your own party.
It’s sleazy, but I don’t think it’s illegal.
It’s legal to use campaign funds to bribe people not to run for office? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Technically, they would be helping him run, not bribing him not to run. The question is whether it is illegal to coordinate campaign strategy in exchange for donations.
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