He followed Gore around to remind folks that Gore took tobacco money.
Posted on 03/29/2004 6:40:38 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
In 1996, the Democratic Party dispatched a posse of activists dressed up like 7-foot-tall cigarettes to dog Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole on the campaign trail, mercilessly harassing him for cozying up to the tobacco lobby.
The ubiquitous Butt Men were magnets for the TV cameras and annoyed Dole to no end. The Viagra Man went on to lose the race, and Bill Clinton was re-elected.
I'm not suggesting that the Butt Men single-handedly defeated Dole, but they were an effective and prickly reminder of Dole's deficits.
Democrats aspiring to recoup the White House in 2004 have to tackle two targets this time: Republican President George W. Bush and independent contender Ralph Nader. And given the recent plummeting fortunes of ''W'' right now, Nader may be the more worrisome. Although Nader has no chance to win, Democratic activists are in a cold sweat over the prospect that Nader's bid could ensure Bush's re-election. Many believe that in 2000, Nader's Green Party candidacy siphoned off crucial support for Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore and assured a Bush victory.
In January, a group of progressive activists, including former Nader allies, launched a ''Ralph Don't Run'' Web site to persuade Nader to shun a reprise. A month later, Nader announced on NBC's ''Meet The Press'' that he would run as an independent. Nader, 70, says he is running for independent-minded voters tired of the political status quo. Washington has become ''corporate occupied territory,'' Nader argues, and there is little difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Nader is a dangerous man. The anti-Nader site says that ''a swing of just three electoral votes anywhere in the country and George Bush would never have become president.''
Just enough of Nader's 2.8 million votes would have gone to Gore.
Instead, we spent the fall of 2000 wringing our collective hands over a bunch of paper slivers dangling from Florida's now-infamous butterfly ballots. If not for those hanging chads, many people believe, Gore would be president today.
I wasn't in love with Gore. But under a Democratic president, we wouldn't be saddled today with the likes of the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, and Halliburton. In 2004, the stakes are even higher, and the contest will be just as close. Sen. John Kerry, the presumed Democratic nominee, will need every vote.
Nader can talk all he wants about democracy. From where I sit, it's about vanity. Nader has anointed himself democracy's savior, and I'm not buying it. Nader No More in 2004.
Here's an idea: Let's bring back Butt Man, only this time he'll be dressed like a hanging chad. I can see it now: Ubiquitous Chad Men hounding Ralph Nader every day, every minute on the stump from now until Nov. 2. It's a beautiful thing.
The Democratic National Committee has the connections to find a talented Hollywood costume designer to create just the right get-up.
The Chad Men can excoriate Nader at every turn. Nader is pledging to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Chad Men will be waiting in every one of them to greet Nader when he shows up to file his petitions.
When Nader bulldozes his way into the fall debates, Chad Man will be right at his side. Chad Men galore, outside those college assembly halls, flapping in the wind, when Nader arrives to court the youth vote.
Chad Man will be an omnipresent reminder of the risk of the Nader candidacy. This democracy cannot tolerate another election in which African Americans and senior citizens are robbed of their right to vote, or an election that hinges on a pile of paper shreds, or is decided by a dubious Supreme Court decision.
Yes, it's mean and maybe unfair. Still, the 2000 election debacle was mean and unfair, too, and Nader had a hand in it. Yes, maybe marginalizing Nader goes against the grain of America's democratic traditions of inclusion and independence.
As a progressive, I am generally sympathetic to those arguments. But not right now.
Chad Man will need all the friends he can get on the campaign trail. How about people dressed in doughnut costumes (the holes signifying ''0,'' as in the number of votes Nader should get in November)? How about your ideas? Bring them on.
I *think* I'm missing something... but maybe not.
At the risk of revealing the true depths of my ignorance... Who is/was Butt Man?
He followed Gore around to remind folks that Gore took tobacco money.
J
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