BY
Dear Editor:
Political pundit Professor Larry Tribe makes foolish statements and arguments about political campaigns. (See Record, Sept. 30, 2004) The Record quotes him as saying I was responsible for Bush winning over Gore, and Bush’s subsequent bad behavior. Really. I thought the Republican thieves in Florida, the ten times more Democrats deserting Gore for Bush, and the 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court of the United States played a significant role-or George W. Bush who “took” over 50 million votes from Gore, or Gore losing his home state of Tennessee, or Gore’s wooden debate performances, etc. Lots of “what ifs”, so why does Tribe focus on Nader/La Duke? Because he believes third parties are second class citizens, interlopers in a two party dominated duopoly-or as he says, “a grave abuse of the electoral process”. This is a grotesque display of political bigotry against the First Amendment rights of all citizens to compete in the electoral arena, whether or not they belong to the major parties.
With such a bias, it is easy for Tribe to make factual mistakes. He neglected to mention that Nader/Camejo were formally nominated by a convention with Reform Party delegates in Texas, covered by C-Span. To Tribe, small is dastardly.
Tribe’s opponents often say he lacks judicial temperament for the Bench. Let us hope they don’t pull up the Record article on Lexis-Nexis for their next volley of arguments.
Sincerely,Ralph NaderFormer Record Editor