The Cleveland Plain Dealer writes:

Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers, er, critics
Aides to Kucinich, Nader, Dean bought supplies from chain
Monday, October 17, 2005
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief

Washington

– Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Howard Dean and others on the national stage have badmouthed Wal-Mart over its wages, benefits or impact on American communities.

Yet, their aides have bought office and campaign supplies there — and presumably saved their bosses money with the low-price shopping.

Records reviewed by The Plain Dealer show that political organizations headed by these politicians — as well as John Kerry, Wesley Clark, the liberal activist group America Coming Together and the pro-feminist group Emily’s List — have spent money at Wal-Mart over the last 2½ years.

Leaders and advisers of these groups have either criticized Wal-Mart or are lobbying to stop Wal-Mart’s spread in cities including Cleveland.

They say Wal-Mart symbolizes the human cost of relentlessly pursuing lower retail prices: low pay and insufficient benefits for the chain’s employees, and the financial destruction of small merchants.

Why, then, have their aides been cruising Wal-Mart aisles with their bosses’ money?

Robert McAdam, Wal-Mart’s vice president of corporate affairs, suspects he knows.

“We serve so many people because we’re the place that’s convenient to go and at low prices,” said McAdam, who disputes the criticisms leveled at his employer. “So if you’re in charge of managing precious resources for a campaign, which traditionally always struggle to have the right amount of money they need, I can’t imagine they’d make any other choice.”

Exactly, which is precisely why Wal-Mart is good, for the economy as a whole, but especially for the poor. Something that rich limousine liberals like Kerry, Dean, and Kennedy will never understand.