Randi Rhodes Forums

"A Republican operative who helped get Green Party candidates on the Texas ballot was also being paid by Governor Rick Perry's campaign, according to a report in a North Texas newspaper.

Campaign finance reports show the Perry campaign paid Stuart Moss for mileage while he was doing political research in November. That's the same time he helped the Green Party field candidates.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner maintains that the governor's campaign was not involved in the Green Party petition drive.

Democrats, who say liberal Green Party candidates could siphon votes away from Perry's Democratic challenger, Bill White, have sued the Green Party to identify the source of $532,000 that bankrolled the petition drive that made it possible for the third party to get candidates on the November ballot."

FULL:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Stuart.Moss.Gr ... 30159.html

Spoilers.

I remember some years ago that then-presidential-candidate Howard Dean was in an NPR-sponsored debate with Ralph Nader about the role of third parties in American politics. Dean pointed out to the crowd that the only way Nader got onto the ticket in a number of states was by receiving donations and petition-signing help from a bunch of Republican operatives and rightwing groups whose views were antithetical to his own. Dean made the point that these groups were helping him because they knew Nader would pull away support from the Democrat in these states (this is a very real phenomenon that political scientists refer to as Duverger's Law).

Nader's response was something to the effect of "Maybe they just believe in voters having a choice!"

It's like they don't want to believe that they're being played for chumps. Or they don't care and just want the exposure.

Maybe the Green Party supporters should look at the likelihood they are being played for stooges just like the Tea Party plays working class whites who vote Republican. The anti-corporate Greens are being propped up by cynical corporate manipulators.