Fool me once...shame on you. Fool me twice...shame on me.

This guy Nader is on another one of his ego trips. The difference now is that neither the Progressives nor The Green Party want anything to do with him. Don't be fooled again.

Of course Nader is right: There is little difference between the parties in Washington. Government is run by special interests and needs to be fixed. But taking votes and money away from the Democratic nominee is NOT the right way to fix government?

In a prior column we urged Nader not to run again. Apparently he didn't heed our advice either. His bloated ego has definitely taken control over his senses.

Ralph has morphed into the same type of person as George Bush: A person who who can neither admit his mistakes nor take responsibility for them. Nader has never admitted responsibility for helping to put Bush in office...he is still blaming Gore for losing the election. In Florida alone, a state won by Bush by only 537 votes, Nader took 97,419 votes for himself. Gore would have won Florida easily and therefore the presidency if it hadn't been for Nader. Nader also cost Gore enough votes in New Hampshire for him to lose that state and the presidency.

Nader won't admit he was wrong in campaigning on the theme that there was no real difference between Gore and Bush in 2000.

On the other side, Bush can't admit any of his policies and positions were wrong, misguided, based on hyped intelligence, or bad for the country even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Bush thinks he can just spin things a different way i.e. instead of Iraq posing an imminent threat to the US because of their WMD, now the reasons for the war have been twisted into whatever is expedient at the time. Well Nader is spinning too!

But just as Nader and Bush have something in common so too do they have something in extreme opposition to one another: While Bush is doing everything he can to benefit his big corporation campaign donors at the expense of everyone else, Nader fails to see any good coming from corporations. Both of these stances are not only misguided but harmful.

We agree with NY Times columnist, Paul Krugman, who had these insights about the more recent Ralph Nader in a column he wrote in July 27, 2000 prior to the election:

"If you look for a unifying theme in all these (Nader) causes, it seems to be not consumer protection but general hostility toward corporations. Mr. Nader now apparently believes that whatever is good for General Motors, or Pfizer, or any corporation, must be bad for the world. To block opportunities for corporate profit he is quite willing to prevent desperately poor nations from selling their goods in U.S. markets, prevent patients from getting drugs that might give them a decent life and prevent a moderate who gets along with business from becoming president.

Many of those who are thinking about voting for Mr. Nader probably imagine that he is still the moderate, humane activist of the 1960's. They should know that whatever the reason -- your amateur psychology is as good as mine -- he is now a changed man."

So until Nader admits he was wrong and is now wrong attempting to run for President yet another time with absolutely NO chance of winning, we believe it is time to put the kibosh on Nader by taking away his money. Since he won't listen to reason maybe he will listen when no one sends him money. We also urge everyone to avoid working for his campaign. He will need plenty of workers and money to get himself on the ballots in all of the states as an independent. Maybe we can prevent this from happening.

We have to brush aside for a moment all of the valuable services Nader has performed on behalf of consumers and concentrate on beating Bush - even if it means shortchanging Nader's good works.

We are urging all progressives to refuse to work for Nader or to send his organizations money until he withdraws himself from the Presidential race. Yes, boycotting Nader and his organizations is a harsh step but one that is necessary when you are dealing with someone this irrational. The country cannot withstand another four years of BushCo so anything that interferes with efforts to remove Bush from office on Nov. 2, 2004 - and this now includes taking aim at Nader - is fair game.

The main Nader organization that we urge you to NOT send any money to is Public Citizen ( http://www.citizen.org/), an otherwise good and deserving organization. For a complete list of other organizations Nader has founded and/or is actively involved with, please view this list. In addition we urge you not to send him any money. And please don't hire him as a speaker or spend any money to hear him speak.

In case you are feeling a twinge of guilt - DON'T!! Nader had plenty of prior warnings that his candidacy was not welcome in dealing with the bigger picture of removing Bush. He ignored the warnings.

It is worth noting that on Meet the Press, 2/22/04, Nader hemmed and hawed when asked by Tim Russert if he would make a full disclosure with respect to his tax returns, saying he didn't approve of full disclosure laws but would comply with Federal regulations. Did this mean Nader still wants to hide behind his "Bohemian facade" so his supports don't discover he's a millionaire several times over? Does Nader really hate the corporations that have benefited his own investment portfolio?

It's even more incredulous that if Nader were to become president, how would he ever govern. Who would listen to him? How would he build coalitions to get anything passed in Congress as an Independent? Nader has never been a politician yet he thinks he can become one now? Does he think the Republicans would work with him? The Democrats who are still reeling from losing the 2000 election won't even speak to him in the hallways of Congress.

At least Nader had good intentions but is out of touch with reality and therefore not qualified to hold the office of President of the United States. Bush on the other hand, never had good intentions and was always out of touch with reality. Don't be fooled again.

Contributor: Sandra Lawrence

©2004 Topplebush.com
Posted: February 24, 2004