Friday, January 21, 2005

Zell Miller Ascendent

Here's a pretty cool piece from the always entertaining Rich Lowry of the National Review. Turns out that if the Democrats had listened to Zell Miller, yesterday might have been a very, very different day:
Many of the things that Miller said in his book have now become nearly conventional wisdom among Democratic loyalists. All the Democrats who now say that the party has foolishly given up on the South, that it is unable to connect with religious voters, that it is too beholden to liberal orthodoxy on social issues, that Americans don't trust it on national defense, and that it doesn't speak the language of most Americans should take a deep breath and repeat after me: "Zell Miller was right."
To me, the most jaw-dropping quote in the Lowry article is from NYT columnist Nicholas "America is Great Satan" Kristof:
Liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently declared, "Nothing kills Democratic candidates' prospects more than guns."
Paging Barbara Boxer!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Zell Miller is a nut case ( "I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel.") and a shill for the tobacco industry. He is also a hypocrite since he just took a job lobbying for a law firm. The guy is obviously an opportunist. Even more bad news for your hero is that the Republican party has distanced itself from him because he is seen as such a loon. Pretty surprising since the Republican party under Bush has not trouble with telling lies big or small. Sorry guys. As Reagan said, "facts are stupid things".

Former Sen. Zell Miller, the Georgia Democrat turned fiery keynote speaker at last summer’s Republican National Convention, has joined the international law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge.
The firm, with 20 lobbyists, has legal and lobbying clients interested in virtually every issue before Congress: taxes, international trade, homeland security, defense, health policy, agriculture, education, insurance and energy.
During his one term in the Senate, Miller complained that "elected officials are beholden to these special interest groups." His new firm’s clients include defense contractor Lockheed-Martin; Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, maker of diabetes products; vaccine maker Aventis Pasteur Inc.; and insurer AFLAC.
The firm reported spending $820,000 for lobbying in the first half of 2004, according to lobbying disclosure records.

and

What poetic justice. Yesterday the Republicans were hailing Zell Miller as their new champion. After the massive criticism of Miller's attack on Kerry, they have disowned him.
After gauging the harsh reaction from Democrats and Republicans alike to Sen. Zell Miller's keynote address at the Republican National Convention, the Bush campaign - led by the first lady - backed away Thursday from Miller's savage attack on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, insisting that the estranged Democrat was speaking only for himself.
Late Thursday, Miller's name was removed from the list of dignitaries who would be sitting in the first family's box during the president's acceptance speech later in the evening. No explanation was immediately offered, but the change was made only a few hours after Laura Bush, asked about Miller's deeply personal denunciation of his own party's nominee, said in an interview with NBC News that "I don't know that we share that point of view."
Aides to President Bush and his campaign said Miller was not speaking for all Republicans.