Burnt Orange Report

But, but Nader is the candidate of Bold Ideas and all that, right?

Here's the latest news on this candidate of ideas:

Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post, reports that Ralph Nader has parted ways with Michael Moore after the filmmaker held a premiere showing of “Fahrenheit 9/11″ for Washington Democrats.
Nader fired off an angry letter poking fun at Moore’s “girth.”

“Miffed that he was not invited to the Washington premiere of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Nader, whose 6-foot-4 frame is a lean 190 pounds, said Moore’s former Naderite friends are ‘trim and take care of themselves. Girth they avoid. The more you let them see you, the less they will see of you.’”

“We are more saddened than angered by this,” a Moore associate told the Post. “It is just sad.”

But the advice continues to flow to Moore from candidate Nader. “I’ve been at him for years, saying ‘you’ve got to lose weight,’ ” Nader said in the phone interview. “Now, he’s doubled. Private exhortations aren’t working. It’s extremely serious. He’s over 300 pounds. He’s like a giant beach ball.”

Pathetic.

That's just pathetic and sad.

Look at it from this perspective. On the scale of political discourse, Nader's "Michael Moore is a fatso" is still one step above Cheney's "Go Fuck yourself."

Ralph Nader is off the ballot in 22 states. Now I don't know about you but that brings a smile to my face.

Nader's increasing irrelevance is especially good, considering this.

If the left were to figure out a way to pull their heads out of their asses, actually build a coalition and keep it together maybe they could achieve some of their goals. Instead they'd rather curse the darkness and kiss each other's asses at how "principled" they are than to light a candle.

Andrew, you're absolutely right about Nader, but to tar "The Left" (whoever they are) with this sort of broad brush is pure, unadulterated prejudice: the political equivalent of racism.

Have you forgotten that a documentary by one particular member of "The Left" is currently doing more to bring the Bush presidency to an end than most of us could ever hope to? Or that a majority of the delegates of the party most consistently identified with "The Left" just explicitly rejected Nader and his political strategy?

Methinks it is you, not "The Left," who has no interest in "actually build[ing] a coalition and keep[ing] it together." Instead you'd rather congratulate yourself on how "pragmatic" you are and tell anybody more liberal than, say, Tony Sanchez to (as Cheney might say) go f*** themselves, then curse the results on election night 2002 when "The Left" stayed home and did just that instead of bothering to come out and vote.

As a proud member of "The Left," I'm sending hundreds of dollars of my hard-earned money to Kerry and other Democrats this year, because like you, I understand how important it is that we end Rethuglican rule ASAP. Unlike you, however, I'm not fooling myself into thinking that Kerry and the Democrats will automatically do the right thing with respect to Iraq, the USA "PATRIOT" Act, taxes, or even gay marriage. I will do what I can to hold his feet to the fire when he starts making the inevitable bad "compromises" with the Rethuglicans. Will you?

But Michael Moore is a fatso. And so am I. Indeed, if I don't shave, I look like Michael Moore. The fundamental difference between "Michael Moore is a fatso" and "you're not supposed to bring up stuff about Halliburton so go fuck yourself" is that Nadar's tactless comment at least has some foundation in empirical truth.