RALPH NADER spits out contempt for his erstwhile allies, who are now trying to cajole, litigate and even bribe him out of the US presidential race.

Many of “Nader’s Raiders” from the 2000 election, when his strong showing in Florida effectively cost the Democrats the White House, are now spurning him in favour of what he calls the “undemocratic Democratic Party”.

“These are on-their-knees frightened liberals whose mantra in this election is ‘Anybody But Bush/Leave Kerry alone’,” he says. “This is the moral bankruptcy of the liberal intelligentsia. After the elections they will be very ashamed of themselves.”

As he criss-crosses the country, the pioneering consumer rights activist, who made his name by bringing General Motors into line over the safety of its cars in the Sixties, is shadowed by a Democratic-linked group calling itself “the Nader factor” that aims to highlight the damage he could do to John Kerry.

Seventy former Nader-ites, including the actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, the singer Bonnie Raitt and Professors Noam Chomsky and Cornel West, have taken out page advertisements in the alternative press to appeal to him to step down. Michael Moore, the left-wing film-maker and current darling of the Democratic Party, has apologised to the 2000 loser Al Gore for backing Mr Nader.

Even Mr Nader’s running mate from 1996 and 2000, Winona LaDuke, a Green activist, is now backing Mr Kerry. A website has gone as far as to offer Mr Nader a financial incentive to bow out — in the form of a $100,000 (£54,500) contribution to his watchdog group Public Citizen. But Mr Nader, 70, a Harvard law graduate whose parents were Lebanese immigrants, scoffs at the proposal.

“An offer? $100,000?” he says. “Millions of dollars have been offered. This is a candidate who has never been and is not for sale.”

Aggressive litigation by the Democrats has kept Mr Nader off the ballot in key states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. But he fights on in places like Iowa, where his small following — which it is assumed would otherwise lean towards the Democrats — could cost Senator Kerry a crucial state.

In Iowa, polls show that either George Bush leads Mr Kerry by 4 per cent, or Senator Kerry is up 1 per cent. With Mr Nader pulling between one and 3 per cent of the vote, he could make the difference.

Mr Nader continues to be undaunted: “We really want to support a national political movement to break up the decadent two-party electoral dictatorship. I don’t think they can internally reform themselves.

“I think they are too commercialised. At one time, I thought the Democrats could — but not any more,” he explains. “Every social justice movement that I have ever heard of starts off by losing,” he says. “You lose and you fight. You lose and you fight until your agenda prevails. If you are not willing to lose, you will never prevail.”

With the race so close, some Nader supporters are turning to the internet. One website, called votepair.org, enables Nader-ites in swing states to vote for their man without harming Mr Kerry by swapping votes with Kerry supporters in safe Democratic states.

With typical wry humour, however, Mr Nader prefers another site, called www.votepact.com. “What it does is ask a Kerry voter who is disgusted with Kerry and Bush voters who are disgusted with Bush to vote Nader to cancel each other out,” he explains.

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