Campaign Notebook
Dean, Nader debate over Bush factor

SAUL LOEB / KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, left, debates Ralph Nader, right, an independent candidate for president, yesterday on the effects of alternative political parties in Washington, D.C.

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WASHINGTON — Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and former Democratic hopeful Howard Dean sparred in a 90-minute debate yesterday as Dean relentlessly repeated that a vote for Nader is a vote for President Bush.

Dean's appearance in the debate, sponsored by National Public Radio, was part of an unofficial stop-Nader movement gearing up in state after state.

Nader, who wanted exposure for his progressive causes, accused Democrats of a "smear" effort in Arizona, where an orchestrated Democratic challenge forced his campaign to abandon its efforts to qualify for the ballot.

Dean reinforced Democrats' fear that Nader could cost Sen. John Kerry the election the way many contend Nader cost Vice President Al Gore a victory in 2000. Nader was the Green Party nominee four years ago; he's not this year.

"I am desperate to send George Bush back to Crawford, Texas," Dean told the audience at the National Press Club. He said he considered the political situation a "national emergency" and stressed that he rejected the idea of a third-party bid for himself after losing the Democratic nomination because he thought it would help elect Bush.

Dean told Nader that he was being "disingenuous" about the impact of his campaign when Nader said his independent bid would draw more from Republicans than Democrats.

"I ask you not to turn your back on your own legacy," Dean said.

Nader defended his right to run and mocked Dean's pro-Kerry positions as "Howard Dean, the Second" and a big change from Dean's once-antagonistic relationship with Kerry.

Bush skips NAACP over "hostile" remarks

KUTZTOWN, Pa. — President Bush has decided not to speak to the country's largest civil-rights group, the White House said yesterday, citing openly hostile comments by its leaders about the president.
 
The White House initially attributed Bush's decision not to accept the invitation to speak at the NAACP annual convention to a scheduling conflict. The convention opens today in Philadelphia.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan cited "hostile political rhetoric about the president" from the group's leaders.

Sen. John Kerry, Bush's likely Democratic rival, is scheduled to address the group Thursday.

Drug-policy official quits for Illinois race

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The deputy director of President Bush's drug-control office resigned yesterday to explore a run for the Senate in place of Jack Ryan, the Republican nominee who dropped out over sex-club allegations.

Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell, 50, a Chicago-area physician, had been deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington since 2002.