NADER CAMPAIGNS IN SC FOR GREEN PARTY NOMINATION

COLUMBIA, S.C. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has taken his Green Party
presidential bid to South Carolina, saying struggling tobacco farmers
should grow hemp and that the Confederate flag represents a
slave-based economy.

Nader was in South Carolina Wednesday, seeking 10,000 signatures by
Aug. 1 to be placed on the state's election ballot. His goal is to be
on the ballots of at least 45 states.

Nader said hemp farming should be legalized, which could replace
tobacco as a cash crop for many farmers. Industrial hemp is the
nonhallucinogenic cousin of marijuana that can be used in clothing and
food. Tobacco historically has been South Carolina's most valuable
cash crop, though prices and quotas have fallen in recent years,
especially following the 1998 settlement of a lawsuit by 46 states
against tobacco companies.

Nader also said the Confederate flag atop South Carolina's Statehouse
dome should be removed because it has no legal status to fly. It was
raised to rebuke civil rights and "represents a slave-based economy,"
he said. "It's time to deglamorize the Civil War," he said, adding
that "I am, after all, a Connecticut Yankee."

Nader, a lawyer who first gained prominence taking on the auto
industry in the 1960s, got less than 1 percent of the vote in his 1996
presidential bid. During a brief campaign in 1992, Nader collected
about 6,300 write-in votes in the New Hampshire primary.

Nader said if he gets included in the presidential debates with
Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, he stands a chance.
"Small political starts have regenerated politics, and they can do it
again," he said.

He doesn't think much of the major party candidates and had kinder
words for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, who he said is "willing
to discuss and is not a tightlipped reactionary."

Big business has corrupted the political system, and Nader wants
public financing of campaigns and other campaign finance reform. He
also wants to strengthen labor laws and consumer protection laws, and
supports universal health insurance coverage.

Nader: If I win president's race, corporations lose

Barry Flynn of The Sentinel Staff