Mugged by reality

Three decades in the private sector can do that to a man:

After he lost reelection in 1980, McGovern went into the hotel business, which gave him a different perspective on economics and made him an early proponent of tort reform, drawing fire from the era’s best-known consumer advocate: Ralph Nader.

“He really got a more business-oriented view toward life,” said McGovern friend Morris Dees, the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.