Nader sues Democratic Party over '04 election

WASHINGTON — Consumer advocate and 2004 independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party on Tuesday, contending officials conspired to keep him from taking votes away from nominee John Kerry.

Nader's lawsuit, filed in District of Columbia Superior Court, also named as co-defendants Kerry's campaign, the Service Employees International Union and several so-called 527 organizations, such as America Coming Together, which were created to promote voter turnout on behalf of the Democratic ticket.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) conspired to force Nader off the ballot in several states.

The lawsuit seeks "compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief to enjoin the defendants from ongoing and future violations of the law."

Nader received 463,653 votes in the election, or 0.38% of total votes cast.

DNC spokesman Luis Miranda declined to comment on the suit.

Huckabee backtracks on rape case

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee distanced himself Tuesday from the case of an Arkansas man who killed a woman after being paroled for rape when Huckabee was the state's governor.

Huckabee had once spoken in favor of releasing the man but told reporters the decision to do so was made by parole-board members appointed by his Democratic predecessors, Jim Guy Tucker and Bill Clinton.

Huckabee said he could not remember all the details of a meeting he had with parole-board members during which the case of Wayne DuMond came up. But he said, "I didn't try to, you know, push anybody's buttons on it."

Two months after taking office in Little Rock, Huckabee said he favored DuMond's early release because he doubted the inmate's guilt and because DuMond had been castrated while awaiting his rape trial.

DuMond was released to Missouri in 1999, where he was charged in the murder of a Kansas City-area woman. He died of cancer in prison in 2005.

Huckabee acknowledged Tuesday that he initially favored DuMond's release but said he changed his mind when he realized commuting the sentence would mean the man would be under no parole supervision.

Guiliani: Immigrants not employers' worry

WASHINGTON — Responsibility for stopping illegal immigration belongs to the federal government and not to cities, states or businesses, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday.

Giuliani told small-business owners he would not punish them for unwittingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Federal officials are "trying to put the responsibility for this on employers, on city government, on state government," the former New York mayor said during a conference call arranged by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

"The simple fact is, nobody but the federal government can stop people from coming into this country illegally, and the federal government does a very bad job of that," Giuliani said.

He said no other presidential candidate will solve the problem.

Giuliani says he would build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border that includes high-tech monitoring to detect those trying to enter the country illegally. He also calls for hiring more Border Patrol agents.

Legal immigrants should be issued a tamper-proof federal identification card, he said, "and if something is wrong with that card, it's the federal government's responsibility, not yours."

Kucinich questions Bush's mental health

PHILADELPHIA — Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III.

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, of Ohio, told The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

Kucinich, known for his liberal views, trails far behind the leading candidates in most Democratic polls.

Bush made the remarks at a news conference this month. He said: "I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

Republican National Committee spokesman Dan Ronayne said it was hard to take Kucinich seriously.

Seattle Times news services