Nader Turned Away at the Door

At 8 p.m. yesterday, as Vice President Al Gore '69 and Texas Governor George W. Bush prepared to debate, Ralph Nader stood at a bus stop, sheltered below the rumbling Red Line trains at the JFK-UMass T station.

He had a ticket to the debate, but the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) had already decided that the Green Party candidate would never get through security.

Less than two hours earlier, Nader had told a standing room-only crowd at Harvard Law School that although the

CPD was not allowing him to debate, he was set to take in the action as an audience member.

The Harvard audience cheered, and a couple people--to much laughter--yelled out the suggestion that Nader jump onstage. The candidate was taken aback, but quickly regained his composure.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" Nader quipped, eliciting more laughter and cheers.

Standing at the bus stop a couple of hours later, Nader told The Crimson that when he arrived at the UMass debate site, a CPD representative and three police officers approached him.

According to Nader, the CPD spokesperson, who was identified by the Associated Press as John Vezeris, didn't waste words.

"He said, 'I've been instructed to say that even if you have a ticket, you are not to be admitted into the debate,'" Nader said.

"Even if you have a ticket!" Nader added emphatically.

"I asked him to repeat it three times," he said.

Reached moments after the debate ended, Janet Brown, executive director of the CPD, said that the debate commission was aware Nader would attempt to enter.

"There were procedures considered" to stop him from doing so, she said.

She would not say what exactly those procedures were.

One Massachusetts State Police officer and one Secret Service agent told The Crimson that security forces had been instructed to keep Nader out.

Said the state police officer, who would not give his name, "We were just there to make sure he was to leave."

It's been that sort of campaign for Nader, whose lawyer, Jamin B. Raskin '83, told the law school crowd that he doubts judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans will decide in Nader's favor when his case against the CPD is heard in appellate court tomorrow.

According to Raskin, the CPD's argument for excluding candidates who are not drawing 15 percent in national polls is that the commission is not "in the business of jumpstarting third-party candidacies."

"They're in the business of killing third-party candidacies," he said.

"There's a myth in this country that third parties can't make it," Nader said at Harvard. "Well, Rome wasn't built in a day."

In an interview yesterday afternoon, Nader said that despite his exclusion from the debate, he takes solace in his belief that the CPD will soon be out of the debate business. He hinted that public opinion would force the organization to either disband or reform its rules.

Nader said he hopes the CPD will no longer have the authority to keep third-party candidates out of the debates.

"I think this is the last time," he said.

Nader was not alone in his sentiments last night.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the debate hall last night in support of his inclusion.

"One, two, three, four, Bush and Gore are corporate whores!" chanted some demonstrators. "Five, six, seven, eight, why won't they let Ralph debate?"

"It's interesting to be at a protest where the focus is on democracy itself," said protester Maureen E. McOwen '02, a member of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM).

Among the colorful characters was Steven A. Hoey '93, who sported a tuxedo, tiara, glitter-encrusted cigarette holder and jeweled glasses.

Hoey, representing a group called "Billionaires for Bush (Or Gore)" said he was "protesting the protesters."

"We're paying for the debates so you do have to," Hoey said as he passed out phony $10,000 bills.

--Alan E. Wirzbicki contributed to the reporting of this article.