Nader's Traitors

"I didn't have any interest in working with Ralph Nader on something like that. It would be worse than worthless " Cook recalls. "He doesn't have any credibility or access to people we already have access to. In the public-interest community he presumes to speak for progressives, and we're left behind cleaning up the @!$%#."

It wasn't long ago that Nader still commanded broad support among the Democratic left. In 2000, Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon headlined a sold-out Nader rally at Madison Square Garden supporting his presidential campaign. Progressive groups embraced him, and he was a sought-after speaker on college campuses.

Al Gore's loss in 2000--and Nader's perceived role as a spoiler by angry Democrats--changed everything. Today, there seems to be an inverse relationship between Nader's political ambitions and his profile as a consumer advocate. Many of the very groups Nader founded, including Public Citizen and the Center for Study of Responsive Law (CSRL), have distanced themselves from his presidential run. Nader personally built the ideological infrastructure of the progressive Washington establishment. But, these days, it's among the Nader faithful that he's least welcome.

"The Democratic Party needs a lot of pushing and prodding and condemning the way Ralph seems to be doing," Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America's Future and a Nader supporter until 2000, says, "but running as an independent candidate for the White House that draws potential voters away is the worst way to do that."