Hi George,

Ralph Nader has a long list of accomplishments which no U.S. congressperson can match. His work is directly responsible for the most comprehensive clean air and water bills ever passed by the U.S. government. His pioneering lawsuits against polluting energy companies and dangerous automobile manufacturers have saved thousands of lives.

I hope that no one will make the claim that 'ego' is the motivating factor behind Nader's campaign. It is immature, and specious. Ego motivates all of these campaigns. What we must do is make an informed choice on who the government's boss will be for four years.

For what it's worth, the drug war, labor, and the environment all suffered as badly or worse during the Clinton years as during the first Bush ones. In particular, the drug war was far worse - check out Eric Schlosser's book "Reefer Madness" for that - he's the well known author of the muck-raking "Fast Food Nation" published some time ago.

Snook's whole thing with abortion rights being threatened has some resonance of course - but again - it's specious. The line "women will lose their rights unless you do this" sounds a bit too much like that old line "do what we say or the bitch gets it."

This culture always manages to pimp women as it needs to, and ignore them otherwise. We'll do the same thing to Nader - we'll take all his hard work, the benefits of which we enjoy everyday in product safety, our environment, our drinking water - but when it's time to vote - our backs are turned. That arrogant bastard.

Andrew Holden (electronic mail, February 23, 2004)