Wednesday, March 24, 2004
On The Topic Of Zell Miller...
Ever since Richard Clarke had the audacity to dare speak negatively about the Boy King's failure to address the threat Al-Qaeda presented pre-9/11, the GOP talking heads have been in a tizzy claiming that Clarke is merely trying to play election-year politics and sell books...
Well, Clarke's book was supposed to come out several months ago, but was delayed by (guess who?) the White House. As far as Clarke's desire to sell books, I have trouble believing that a Republican that served under four presidents (3 of them Republicans), would speak out so vehemently without a good reason.
What this whole fiasco leaves me wondering is why this line of reasoning has never been applied to Georgia's "Democratic" Senator Zell Miller...
Miller came out last year and endorsed President Bush for re-election in 2004. Correct me if I'm wrong but that qualifies as playing election-year politics since Miller has said he would campaign for Bush this year.
Miller also came out with a book last year, stating that the Democratic party was a national party no longer, in spite of the fact that the South has several Democratic governors and Senators. He bases this assumption on the outcome of the 2000 election in which Al Gore didn't win a single Southern state (unless you count Florida!). Too bad Miller left out the fact that Bush barely won only a single Northern state (New Hampshire) and he did so by the thinnest of margins thanks to Ralph Nader.
Ever since his book came out, Miller has made the rounds of the genetic frappe that is right-wing radio, bashing "his" party for evolving on him and tearing apart Democratic candidate John Kerry for too liberal and soft on national security.
A great blog called DownsTown opened my eyes to some striking comments that Zell Miller made back in 2001 about John Kerry:
At the Georgia Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in 2001, he introduced Kerry as “one of this nation’s authentic heroes, one of this party’s best-known and greatest leaders — and a good friend.”
In remarks reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miller continued, “In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.” Miller said Kerry “fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.”
Who's trying to sell books now? Or would we call that jockeying for a spot on the conservative talking circuit after his well overdue retirement?
Why don't conservatives apply their own stringent literary litmus test to people they agree with?
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