Never mind that I voted for Al Gore and urged readers to do the same. To hear the complaints, you'd think Nader and his supporters donned machine guns and ammo belts and held Gore captive in some remote Montana sweat lodge throughout the presidential campaign.

Instead, the 66-year-old consumer/labor/human rights activist merely exercised his right as a citizen of the United States to run for president.

Earlier this week in The Chronicle's fine Open Forum spot, one of the Nader blamers really uncorked on Ralph and the Green Party that backed him. As I was revving up to argue with the guy -- lawyer and Demo campaigner Marc Slavin -- a far more qualified person beat me to it.

Lynn Rigney Schott is a Green who worked for Nader. A Bay Area native, she teaches high school English in Kettle Falls, Wash., 85 miles north of Spokane. The last few weeks, Schott has been here taking care of her very ill dad (a dear pal of mine). But she had time to read the paper and to pen her own essays. Herewith, excerpts from her latest. I could not put it any better:

"Marc Slavin has a lot of nerve blaming Greens for failing to get their message out or to substantially engage their potential allies among disenfranchised communities on the left. Real influence is impossible without money and access, two of Nader's primary issues. Greens attempted to enter the so-called dialogue -- that is, the conversation framed and limited by the two major parties -- but were denied access to the main forum: the debates and the excessively expensive, corporate-controlled TV time.

"It is Democratic business-as-usual to say arrogantly that real grass-roots reform must stay off the grass until it has the corporate sponsorship to be ready for prime-time debate status.

"Contrary to Slavin's claim, politics is not a game. And politics based solely on strategy, devoid of idealism, is relegated to the election cycle with its fund-raisers, pollsters, handlers, its cynical rhetoric and jockeying for power. It is the Democrats who refused the dialogue the Greens proposed; now they need a scapegoat for their own inept, unprincipled campaign in the wake of the Republican theft of the presidency.

"The Nader candidacy was not aimed at Al Gore. It was designed to educate the public about crucial, complex issues -- the World Trade Organization and the myth of free trade, campaign finance reform, health care, the environment, social justice, poverty, education, human rights, corporate domination -- issues the Democratic Party refuses to confront honestly. Any public awareness of these issues today is the result of grass-roots commitment and activism on the part of Greens and other dedicated organizations.

"The Greens I know are not members of Slavin's 'elite'; they are determined reformers who work in health clinics, women's shelters, schools and environmental groups. They protest in Fort Benning, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Chiapas. They are tireless advocates for the very people the Democratic Party has left behind.

"I'd advise Slavin and those like him to take another cold shower and let the Greens know when you're ready for that 'voluntary' conversation. (We tried to volunteer but we were turned away at the door.)

"Also, I continue to wonder why the Greens are expected to do all the compromising. Why don't the Democrats see us as potential allies? Think about it in the shower, Mr. Slavin, and save your venom for George W. Bush. While you're at it, put your energy behind your principles: See you in the streets."

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

###