Second, he shut Michael Moore’s trap-hole like I’ve never seen anyone shut it before. Moore was on fire for the whole show, just laying into the GOP congressman who was there, laying into Bush, etc…which is all good, but someone needs to put a check on the man, you know? I mean, I watched him debate Bill O’Really? and never miss a beat…but Nader shut him up real good, and put a look on his face like I’ve never seen. Nader came on at the end and said, “on your website there’s a petition to oppose every politician who supported the war in Iraq. Which includes Kerry, right?”. Moore said nothing, and Nader says, “I’ve never seen you so speechless”. Oh, man, I’m no Moore basher, I think he’s done great things and not-so-great things, but that, that was priceless.

Anyhow, whenever I read, hear or see anything about Nader, I think of this book and these people in it. And I laugh.

Politicians are like that…all of them.

“The 2-week-old effort to collect signatures using hired petition circulators also faced scrutiny last week after reporters witnessed several circulators repeatedly signing each other’s forms and telling signers that they could use whatever name they wanted.

“Slevin said circulators had been instructed to obey the law.

“But one disgruntled circulator said they had not known the rules. ‘Everyone in the mission was just passing them around from person to person,’ said Michael Reed Jr., 21, who said he had not been paid.

“Under Pennsylvania law, only registered voters may sign ballot petitions, and only once. Flawed petitions can be challenged in court, leading to a candidate’s removal from the ballot.”

And:

“Petition circulators were told they would be paid from 75 cents to $1 for each valid signature. . . . [P]eople who showed up Wednesday described a chaotic situation. Lines moved slowly as Slevin and one assistant, protected by armed guards, vetted the petitions for obviously forged signatures. Many in line were shouting and claiming they had been underpaid.”

It sounds like the petition circulators, whether because they were dishonest or poorly instructed, padded their signature lists with bogus signatures. The press reported this, and the Nader people got scared the phony signatures would be used as grounds for keeping their candidate off the ballot. So they went through the lists and crossed out the signatures they thought were obviously invalid. Since the petition-circulators were paid by the signature, this meant a reduction in the pay they expected to receive. Hence the complaints.

Anyway, that’s my guess as to what happened.