Nader slams Democrats for continued '00 grudge

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By Christina Bellantoni and Stephen Dinan

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

Ralph Nader said Democratic leaders are so angry about the 2000 election that they have since deprived him from giving congressional testimony, preventing him from speaking on issues he's championed for decades. He suggests that they stop scapegoating him and face their own failings.

Mr. Nader, embarking on another third-party bid for the White House, gave several examples of his attempts to testify on President Bush's nominees, civil liberties and auto safety, the issue that began his career as a consumer advocate.

"I used to be the most frequent person there," he told The Washington Times on Monday in an extensive interview from his office in Georgetown.

"They are so small-minded that to keep the myth up that it wasn't them that got Bush in the White House, it was Nader/LaDuke - to keep that myth and sustain it in the public's mind, they can't possibly associate with me or have me testify. Even though they knew they blew it in 1,000 ways in '00 and '04."

Mr. Nader said some Democrats, such as Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman, still see him, but that a "spite mentality" prevents them from asking him to testify.

He blamed a Democratic "cult" that has sprouted around the charge that he cost Vice President Al Gore the 2000 presidential election and said that, as a result, Democrats deprive their voters of a voice they would want to hear.

"If somebody that strong is worried about that peer group pressure, it tells you something," he said.

Mr. Nader said he repeatedly asked Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas to testify at a hearing earlier this month on car-roof safety in rollover crashes ("I know a little bit about this subject") but was turned down and offered the opportunity to submit a statement instead. He said it's been at least seven years since he testified - which coincides with the aftermath of his 2000 presidential run.

Pryor spokesman Michael Teague denied the account, saying: "We have no information or knowledge that he ever contacted anybody in our office or Senator Pryor to testify."