Nader complained that state party leaders filed "21 phony lawsuits" that his team had to defend against.

"We won most of the state Supreme Court decisions, but they harassed and intimidated our signature gatherers," he said.

Among the states that bounced Nader: Pennsylvania and Ohio, two of the most hotly contested. Other Nader-free zones engineered by the Democrats included Oregon, Arizona, Massachusetts and Texas.

"That's what we call political bigotry, constitutional crimes, violation of our civil liberties," he told Counterpunch. "We have it all documented."

Nader said Dems went so far as to employ Ken Starr's old law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, which was paid "millions of dollars ... to unleash a huge assault on our ballot access rights."

He warned that the Democratic Party has now been taken over by the Democratic Leadership Council, whose guiding principal, he said, is "Don't upset business at all.

"Be very friendly to business. Turn your back on the corporate crime wave that's looted tens of trillions of dollars from pension holders, small investors, and workers Enron-style. Keep raising money from them, and keep talking about education, and generalities."

Editor's note: