Ralph Nader might as well call it his vindication tour.

Four years ago he was forced off the presidential ballot in Pennsylvania and ordered to pay more than $80,000 in court costs to the people who ousted him.

Now, the group that organized the effort -- top Harrisburg Democratic staff members -- are facing criminal charges in a scandal that involved alleged taxpayer-funded pay bonuses to political workers. Some of that work, says a state grand jury, went to the oust-Nader effort.

"We're going to express some triumph at our legal victories, our vindication," Mr. Nader said.

He speaks at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Pittsburgh.

The rhetoric will be vintage Nader -- unapologetically liberal, skeptical of the marketplace and bluntly consumerist.

"We're then going to talk about ending the war and a public works program all over the country. Living wage. Repealing the Taft-Hartley Act. We're opposed to corporatizing the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We're going to have somebody drive a big sign on the turnpike urging motorists to oppose the corporatization," he said in a telephone interview.

He will have strong words, too, for the Pittsburgh law firm of Reed Smith. The firm, which also represents the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, provided legal counsel to the House Democratic leaders who led the effort to remove Mr. Nader's name from the Pennsylvania ballot four years ago.

Commonwealth Court later ordered Mr. Nader to pay the firm's legal bills. Since allegations, first reported by the Post-Gazette, that House staff members were paid with tax dollars in part to reward them for their work in the petition challenge, Mr. Nader's lawyers have filed to have the order rescinded.

The case is pending.

This year, Mr. Nader is again on the Pennsylvania ballot, apparently without challenge. His campaign says he is on the ballot in 45 other states and the District of Columbia.

While sometimes blamed for siphoning crucial votes from Democratic nominee Al Gore in Florida eight years ago, Mr. Nader insists he likely boosted overall voter turnout and rejects suggestions that he is somehow a spoiler.

"We've got to get over these what-ifs," he said.

"Spoiling is only applied to third-party candidates as if they're second-class citizens and don't belong there. I reject that."

He also rejects this year's Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, likening him to a succession of other Democratic nominees stretching back to former Vice President Walter Mondale all the way up to Sen. John F. Kerry four years ago.

"Obama is making every move possible to lose. If we can wake him up, that's good for him. If he doesn't wake up, he's going to lose," Mr. Nader said.

He criticized Mr. Obama and the Democrats for what he views as "pro-corporate positions."

"The Democrats are following the same strategy as Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry, Gore and even Clinton -- go to the right, be more right-wing and corporate because they think they've got the liberal, progressive Democrats in their pocket because they have nowhere to go. Well, we're going to give them a place to go."

In Pennsylvania, he said, the strategy is to shake loose enough votes to create a three-way race that will force the Democrats to compete for liberal and progressive votes.

He all but admits that his is not a strategy to win the presidency, but to win the agenda.

"The strategy says build pressure on one or more of the two parties to move toward our agenda, either now or after the election, by getting as many votes as we can," he said.