The Spoiler-in-Chief Speaks Out

John Edwards' Ralph Nader impersonation has paid off, at least with the original himself who has converted his Hillary hatred into embracing the multi-millionaire negligence lawyer with hedge-fund backing who has spent the last month in Iowa reincarnating himself as the angry fighter against corporate interests.

After ritual bashing of Sen. Clinton as a candidate whose experience consists of "going soft on cracking down on corporate crime, fraud, and abuse," Nader has given Edwards a ringing endorsement by allowing that he saw a "glimmer of hope" in his new best friend.

Those who recall how Nader handed the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000 will be grateful that he has chosen a surrogate this time to subvert Democrats' chances for winning the White House rather than doing the job himself.

As an undistinguished one-term senator who voted to go to war in Iraq, Edwards is almost as innocent of actual political experience as his new backer, but he has learned well how to strike poses and euchre idealistic voters into throwing away their chances to pick a president. Nader has passed the torch to a worthy Spoiler-in-Chief.