Iatribe

Saturday, April 03, 2004

 
I've changed my AIM screen name slightly. Please IM me at "SHLEVE" (instead of "SHLEVE1"), as I may not have your screen name.
Steven I. Weiss 9:19:00 PM

Thursday, April 01, 2004

 
Did Michael Moore Lie About Nader On Al Franken's First Day? In today's Air America Radio debut, featuring the first installment of "The O'Franken Factor," Al Franken's comedic approach to the news, Michael Moore was an in-studio guest and Al Gore was a call-in listener. When the two crossed beams, Franken and his co-host did a staged nudge to have Moore apologize for supporting Nader's blowing the 2000 election for Al Gore, but Moore beat around the bush too much.
To get something more explicit out of his guest, Franken said, "You made a mistake," a point that Moore refused to concede. Moore went on to say that Nader had promised his supporters, before the came on board, that he would not campaign in swing states, thus tossing the election to Bush. Moore continued, saying that he had personally made a trip to Florida in the two weeks prior to the election to convince voters there to vote for Gore, not Nader. If true, this assertion would be relatively big news, especially insofar as it would establish mainstream liberal credibility for Moore in the much-listened-to debut of a radio station ostensibly targeted to mainstream liberals.
This claim struck me as likely quite specious, given Moore's propensity for fabrication, as well as the fact that I didn't recall any such move and that this seemed just too opportune a time for him to suddenly reveal this story. A Nexis search seems to prove that extreme skepticism of Moore here is proper.
According to an October 26, 2000, story in Florida State's View by Jessica Van Smith, Moore did deliver a lecture at the school on October 23rd. The relevant paragraphs are:

"I'm considered in the mainstream. I belong to the majority party in this country, the non-voters," Moore said at a press conference before the 8 p.m. lecture. "Fifty-five percent will not vote in this election, and it is not because they're ignorant, stupid or apathetic. It's because they're sick and tired of the miserable choices we are given on this ballot in each of these elections. And I believe people planning to vote for Bush or Gore will admit out of 275 million people, if this is the best we can do, maybe we should be getting candidates from Canada or Mexico from NAFTA."
[...]
Moore spoke at length about the similarities between Bush and Gore and the lack of many differences between their ideologies. He compared the voting strategy of "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" to a tic-tac-toe game, trying to block Bush by voting for Gore. In the end, it forces the appointment of president from "the evil of two lessers."
"A vote for Nader is a vote for Nader and a vote for Bush is a vote for Bush," Moore said. He reprimanded older adults for asking young voters to settle for less and not to vote with their conscience, claiming this mentality leads to menial jobs, bad relationships and the inability to make a change.
[...]
"I think if you poll people on the issues that Ralph Nader stands for you would probably find the majority of people in agreement with him," Moore said. "The majority of people in this country believe that everybody in this country should have access to universal health care in some form or another. The majority of people in this country support a significant increase in the minimum wage. I would say the majority of people would support Ralph's plan to bring our troops home from Japan and Germany where they're no longer needed to defend those countries against a non-existent enemy. If you just took half the money we spend on having our troops in Europe and Japan, every college student in America at a public university would go tuition-free."

There are no other news reports available on Nexis that refer to any appearances by Moore in Florida in the two weeks prior to the election. It should be noted that some skepticism of Van Smith's report could be appropriate; it's obvious from the tone of her article that she leaned Nader-ward, and a Nexis search shows not a single other article authored by her.
It should be noted that Nader supporters did make some effort to scale back operations when it appeared that Bush was closing in on Gore in a state. For instance, according to an October 24, 2000 press release, Nader's celebrity supporters were to hold a conference call announcing the pulling of Nader advertisements in California following a poll that showed Bush at 39 percent, Gore at 44 percent, and Nader at 6 percent support in the state. Though even then, the group still hedged its position:

"Citizens for Strategic Voting is still encouraging Californians to vote for Nader," Greg MacArthur, the businessman paying for the ads said. "We just think we will get more bang for the buck in New York, where many more people can vote for Ralph Nader without fearing that Bush will win."

As the election drew yet closer, Moore even responded to Joe Lieberman's complaints of Nader's potential influence on the election. In an October 31, 2000, story in Wisconsin's Capital Times, Moore was quoted as follows:

Even as Nader continues to pursue his candidacy, Lieberman argues that the Green Party candidate's supporters should think again.
''Ralph's on a course, and he's got that right,'' Lieberman said.
''So my appeal is to the people thinking about voting for Nader to think about the issues, as I believe most of them do. If you're concerned about environmental and consumer protection, campaign finance, fairness in the tax system, right to choose, then I don't think you want to wake up on Nov. 8 and realize that by voting for Ralph Nader you helped elect George W. Bush.''
Award-winning film and television director Michael Moore, who has campaigned for Nader, contends that backers of the Green will reject appeals by Lieberman and others on the ''a-vote-for-Nader-is-a-vote-for-Gore'' bandwagon. ''I lot of these people are backing Nader so strongly because Joe Lieberman is on the ticket. They don't like his record in Connecticut -- the same way they don't like Gore's record of selling out to the special interests.''

Of course, while Moore was claiming that when the election seemed close, he sought to campaign in swing states, obviously when he campaigned in a place like Washington, D.C., he was hoping to raise national turnout for Nader. At a rally there days before the election, the Associated Press reported the following:

Filmmaker Michael Moore said it hurt as a friend of Nader's to hear the assaults against him "from people we thought were our allies." He challenged the crowd to name any legislation by either Gore or Bush that "made this country a better place to live in."
Because of Nader, he pointed out, the nation has federal laws to improve the air, water and environment, not to mention seat belts and many other auto safety features.
"That is what we have from Ralph Nader, and we owe him," he said.

Another AP story reported on the event:

Filmmaker Michael Moore challenged the crowd to name any legislation by either Gore or Bush that "made this country a better place to live in."

The Washington Post reported:

Filmmaker Michael Moore, a warm-up speaker for Nader, took on the Spoiler charge directly, addressing Gore: "If you don't win on Tuesday, it won't be because of Ralph Nader. It will be because of you."

Moreso, Moore made a numer of public and media appearances in the immediate aftermath of the election, at none of which did he present the version of events that he claimed during Franken's show.
According to a November 10, 2000, report in New York University's newspaper, The Washington Square News, Moore gave a speech at the school the night before about the campaign, beginning with the declaration, "Welcome to the burning at the stake of Michael Moore." The report contains no mention of a narrative at all akin to that present by Moore during Franken's show.
Of course, even if Moore was telling the truth -- doubtful as that now seems -- his claim is essentially that he agreed to support Nader in his mission and then felt duped when Nader took the mission in directions Moore hadn't expected. That's basically precisely the claim that John Kerry takes with regard to his vote for the authorization of the Iraq war. Cute.
Steven I. Weiss 2:23:00 AM