Democrats Use Liberals in Late Campaign Dirty Tricks
Michael Moore: Court Jester for Corporate Criminals
by Carl Mayer
www.dissidentvoice.org
October 31, 2004



 

Here is a late-breaking news story, direct from the campaign trail in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

The Kerry campaign, in co-ordination with shadowy 527 groups funded by corporate backers and disgraced Senator Bob Torricelli, is using liberal progressives, including Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky in their literature attacking Nader in the closing days of the campaign.

Here is what a leaflet distributed by the Nader Factor in Wisconsin, said: “Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Tim Robbins, Cornel West and Susan Sarandon have called on Nader to unite against Bush.” The leaflet then goes on to use Winona LaDuke’s name as supporting John Kerry.

The Nader Factor is actually a front group for corporate interests, including military, construction, computer, diet foods, and communications businesses, and is run by David Jones. They are funded by the National Progress Fund who worked through Americans for Jobs and Healthcare, whose first major venture of the 2004 campaign was to aggressively attack Howard Dean in Iowa. Those advertisements were in part funded by the disgraced former New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli and his criminally convicted corporate backers. Torricelli gave $50,000 to the effort.

During the Democratic primary, Tricia Enright, who was Dean’s communications director, described David Jones advertisements saying: “Whoever is behind this should crawl out from underneath their rock and have the courage to say who they are. It is hateful, it's cynical, it's exactly the kind of ad that keeps people from voting, that keeps people from getting involved in the process.” After the primaries she teamed up with David Jones and others to form The Nader Factor which was funded by the National Progress Fund and Americans for Jobs and Healthcare.

The Nader Factor seems closely tied to the Kerry/Edwards campaign.

* Enright left as president of The Nader Factor to work for the Kerry/Edwards campaign in Pennsylvania.

* Jones and other Nader Factor staff attended the Democratic convention where seminars were held on how to keep Nader off the ballot, minimize his vote and raise money for so-called “independent” 527s.

* The Nader Factor shares funders with the Kerry campaign including Bernard Schwartz, chairman of Loral corporation which is a satellite communication company that is part of the military-industrial complex and S. Daniel Abraham, former chairman of Slim-Fast (the Center for Science and the Public Interest describes their product unfavorably as “high-fructose corn syrup, yogurt-flavored coating, partially defatted peanut flour, honey, high-maltose corn syrup, and the other ingredients in a Slim-Fast Meal On-The-Go Bar.”)

* The registered e-mail address of Americans for Jobs, the major funder of The Nader Factor, belongs to Mark W. Ward, a client specialist in the Washington, D.C., office of the billion dollar law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. One of the largest law firms in the world, Skadden is also the fifth most generous career patron to Senator Kerry, its employees directly donating $125,550 to his campaigns, its clients lavishing many times more than that over the years to John Kerry or the Democrats.

The Nader Factor modus operandi is to spread false statements about the Nader/Camejo campaign. For example they are handing out literature that makes the false claim: “Mr. Nader is now accepting funds from the Bush front group Swift Vote Veterans for Truth.” In fact, the Nader/Camejo campaign has received no funds from the Swift Vote Veterans for Truth. Some individuals who have funded Swift Vote have sent unsolicited donations to the campaign, but the leadership of the group says they will be voting for Nader on Election Day.

Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky and other progressives like Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon should not want to be in bed with some of the sleaziest corporate elements in American politics. They need to renounce this group in the closing days of the campaign.

These, and other liberals, have accepted the falsehoods that Nader is accepting organized Republican support. Liberals must now face up to their own truth: they are complicit in Democratic Party dirty corporate tricks.

Carl J. Mayer, an attorney, is an advisor to the Nader for President campaign.  He ran for Congress on the Green Party ticket.  He is the author of Shakedown: The Fleecing of the Garden State.  He can be reached at 609-462-7979.

Other Articles by Carl Mayer

* Kerry and the Sopranos: Why New Jersey is in Play
* No Self-Respecting Progressive or Green Can Vote for David Cobb
* History is on the Side of a Nader Candidacy
* Cobb's Cool-Aid
 

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