BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race

Subject: RE: BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 10:09 PM

Spoken like a true liberal there, Nicole. I don't believe I've ever heard anyone refer to Sen Wellstone as Mr. Smith before.

The point the Mother Jones article made was that he hadn't accomplished any of the things his constituents elected him to do--ie fulfill his campaign promises. And the article was written months before 9/11, and months before he said he would run for a third term (one of his campaign promises was to only serve two terms), and months before Dick Cheney called the current Republican nominee for governor and ordered him not to run in the Senate race, so the White House's hand picked man would pick up the party endorsements without any opposition.

Subject: RE: BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: NicoleC
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 10:56 AM

Sen. Wellstone is the perfect modern-day Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Some progressives may think he's sold out, but I really do think he's one of the good guys trying to change the system from the inside out. He won't get anything done if he doesn't play ball, however distasteful that may be.

Subject: RE: BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 09:48 AM

Bobert, when I posted this, I didn't believe that Ed McGaa was a Republican plant. I still don't believe he is. What I believe is that the Green Party of MN wasn't very selective in their choice of a candidate for US Senate.

Ralph Nader came out this past weekend and volunteered to "appear" with Wellstone in a joint press conference on corporate corruption. Nader's vice presidential running mate, also from Minnesota and also a Native American, Winona La Duke, pleaded with the MN Greens NOT to run a Senate candidate in this election. But because of the anger at Wellstone for selling out the progressive left community that got him elected in the first place, they felt they had to field a candidate, and ended up endorsing the candidate they found most palatable, without knowing anything about him.

This, of course, will only hurt the MN Greens and the national Green parties because this is such a highly visible Senate race to begin with, and because it feeds into the Democratic arguments that the Green parties are running "spoiler" candidates rather than legitimate progressive candidates. Even some of the MN Green Party leadership agrees that McGaa is a pretender, but that they naively thought that fielding a non-white male candidate would be seen as legitimizing him. It hasn't, and the guy is causing the Greens so many headaches that some of the other party faithful have pushed for a primary election in September to try and get rid of the guy.

Subject: RE: BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 09:10 AM

A lot of wolves in sheep's clothing. Yeah, DougR may be right that the best thing that ever happened to the Republican Party is the Green Party, but with the Dems now acring just like the Repubs, a lot of us have no choice but to go Green.

But we do have to be acutely aware of Repub plants and they can be found out with a little digging. Every one has a past.

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:02 AM

It is possible that McGaa is a Republican plant, I rather doubt it. The Greens are the ones at fault for him being endorsed, no one else, according to all the stories I've read, which now includes articles in The Nation, The Progressive, and several others.

McGaa published several rather opportunistic New Age books, purportedly about "Native American Spirituality" which have been pretty roundly condemned by Lakota cultural activists, and he is often referred to as a medicine show Indian by many of them. McGaa also doesn't support the Green Party platform, which makes it all the more odd that this guy, who apparently was a complete unknown to the majority of people who voted for him, was endorsed.

I came across this Mother Jones article about him from the Feb 2001 issue on-line while I was trying to find out more about the race. The article is titled "The Seduction of Paul Wellstone":

http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/JF01/powerplays_wellstone.html

It doesn't paint a very flattering picture of him either.

As to Wellstone, from everything I've read about this race, it appears there is a deep anger about the way he has sold out his progressive values to become a Washington insider, and not just in Minnesota.

Subject: RE: BS: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: NicoleC
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 09:23 PM

Sounds likes McGaa is another Republican-backed third-party candidate in a ploy to siphon votes away from Wellstone. The MN Republicans keep gunning for Wellstone, but he's just to darn popular.

What are those MN Greens thinking? If they are just trying to get campaigning experience, there must be another election!

I's love to see Wellstone run for President in 2004. I doubt he'd win -- not moderate enough -- but it'd be nice to see the Dems offer a candidate who has a different point of view and a backbone to go with it.

Subject: Green vs Green Leaning Senate Race
From: GUEST,Good Green or Bad Green (GGBG)?
Date: 12 Aug 02 - 08:29 PM

I just read this at the Sacramento Bee's 24 hour news/politics page! I'm stunned that the MN Greens would choose this guy to run for any office, much less against Wellstone!

"Green candidate miffed after Nader backs Minnesota senator

By ROB HOTAKAINEN and SHIRA KANTOR, Star Tribune Published 12:00 a.m. PDT Saturday, August 10, 2002

WASHINGTON (SMW) - In a speech to congressional interns this week, Ralph Nader said that Ed McGaa, the Green Party's Senate candidate in Minnesota, is a newcomer who has little chance of winning: "He'll be lucky to get a few thousand votes."

At the same time, Nader, the party's presidential candidate in 2000, offered to appear at a news conference with McGaa's opponent, Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone, to promote corporate reforms. Assessing Wellstone's prospects in the November election, Nader said: "I don't see how he's going to lose."

While Wellstone's campaign welcomed Nader's remarks, McGaa was puzzled by them."