WASHINGTON If Mark Pryor is among a cadre of Democrats conspiring to keep Ralph Nader out of the spotlight, Pryor insists he's not aware of it.
The freshman senator from Arkansas refuted Nader's comments last week that Democrats have excluded him from testifying at congressional hearings because of his spoiler role in the 2000 presidential election.
A consumer advocate and perennial third-party presidential candidate, Nader told the Washington Times that Pryor refused to allow him to testify at a recent auto safety hearing before Pryor's consumer affairs subcommittee.
Pryor said he never heard from Nader before the hearing and that he didn't think members of his staff had spoken to Nader either.
Though Pryor noted Nader is a long-time advocate for automobile safety, the senator said other witnesses did a capable job before the committee.
"I guess Mr. Nader feels like he's important enough that when he says he wants to come testify before a Senate committee, he has the right to come testify, but it doesn't work that way," Pryor said.
Some Democrats fault Nader for pulling enough votes away from Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election to swing the race for President Bush.
Nader, the Green Party nominee in 2000, is running again this year.
He told the Washington newspaper there was a Democratic "cult" conspiring to keep him away from voters. Democrats have a "spite mentality" about the election results, he said.
Pryor said he doesn't dislike Nader.
"I think most people I talk to, they've moved on and there's not a real sense of bitterness or trying to live in the past on that," Pryor said. "People have moved on and they moved on a long time ago.
Out of order
Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, experienced an awkward moment in his love affair with the presiding officer's chair at the head of the House chamber last week.
Ross was directing House floor procedure on Wednesday when was required to bang the gavel to silence a former congressman who was apparently talking loudly in the visitors gallery.
Longtime Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., was about to speak when he stopped to demand Ross silence the ex-lawmaker, who House aides said was former Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y.
"Can you ask that gentleman to sit down and shut up?" Conyers said to Ross.
When an aide apparently told Conyers that the scofflaw was a former colleague, Conyers responded: "I don't care who he is."
After a moment, Ross banged the gavel once and declared: "Occupants of the galleries will be in order."
Apparently, Gilman was giving a tour of the Capitol to a group of visitors.
Ross has said he enjoys presiding over the House, a task usually assigned on a rotating basis to junior members of the majority party.
Observers can tell just by his voice when Ross is directing the chamber he is the only one who sounds like he's excited about otherwise routine procedural statements.
Last year, Ross sent out a news release when he presided over the House's 943rd recorded vote of the session, an all-time record. He also heralded in a news release his presiding over 24 consecutive recorded votes in a single series, also a record.
No news release about the Gilman gavel-down was forthcoming.
Art contest winners
Students from across the country, including a few Arkansans, were at the Capitol last week for a ceremony to recognize winners of the annual congressional art competition.
Winners from all 435 congressional districts have their works displayed on the wall of a pedestrian tunnel that connects the Capitol to a House office building. The winning artwork will be displayed there for one year.
The Arkansas winners included Shannell Garner of Trumann, 1st District; Jordan Karpe of Lutheran High School in Pulaski County, 2nd District; Ethan Robinson, Siloam Springs, 3rd District; and Amanda Brown, El Dorado, 4th District.
Most of the winners were determined by an independent panel of judges in each congressional district.
