Zell Miller: I love my party but hate what it has become

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 06 July 2004 | Zell Miller

[Lando Lincoln]

I have been a proud member of the Democratic Party from the time I first breathed the Georgia mountain air. But lately I can barely recognize my once-great party. Between Al Gore's rants, Michael Moore's falsehoods, the felons-for-hire shenanigans of America Coming Together and Moveon.org's crazy conspiracy theories, the Democratic Party has become a coalition of the wild-eyed. Driven by a rabid desire to defeat President Bush, they seem eager to say and do anything to tear him apart.

All the loudmouthed liberals were recently shouting in unison. Gore accused Bush of deliberately deceiving the American people before the Iraq war. According to Gore, Bush made up connections between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein to dupe us into Iraq. But as with so much of what Gore has said recently, it's just not true.

As the Republican chairman and the Democratic co-chairman of the 9/11 commission said countless times, ties between al-Qaida and Iraq definitely existed. What we're not sure about is whether Saddam had anything to do with the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. And guess what? That's exactly what Bush said last year: "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with Sept. 11." So much for deception.

Hollywood sleazemonger Moore recently released his latest movie. It throws around rumors and innuendos, trying to blame Bush for the heinous acts of terrorists. No wonder the French gave Moore their highest honor for filmmakers. Moore operates in Hollywood cities, where reality plays second fiddle to whatever outrageous fantasy you can create. It is absurd to think that Bush is responsible for terrorism. It existed well before he came into office. He's just the first president who's going head-on after the terrorists to stop them.

Then there's the ultraliberal group America Coming Together. They don't officially work with any campaign, but the Associated Press reported that "ACT is stocked with veteran Democratic political operatives, many with past ties to [Sen. John] Kerry and his advisers."

Now these former Kerry advisers have come up with a brilliant plan to get him elected. They've actually been paying convicted felons to go door-to-door registering people to vote. Excuse me if I seem old fashioned, but I'd prefer not to have convicted felons showing up on my doorstep.

Unfortunately for people in Missouri, Florida and Ohio, that's exactly what's happening. And these aren't petty criminals. According to the Associated Press, these paid canvassers have been convicted of burglary, forgery, drug dealing, assault and sex offenses. Politics does make strange bed-felons.

And of course we've all heard the harangues from Moveon.org, the far-left political organization that tries to stir up anger about President Bush. These folks became famous when they put a couple of ads on their Web site that compared the president of the United States to Adolf Hitler. Then a few weeks ago, they hosted a big speech by George Soros, the billionaire bankroller of the Bush-bashers. Soros claimed that Bush's leadership in the war on terror has turned Americans from victims of terrorism into perpetrators.

As crazy as these charges sound, more and more they seem to represent the standard thinking among Kerry Democrats. After all, right before Soros spoke, one of my Democratic Senate colleagues introduced him by saying, "We need people like George Soros, who is fearless and willing to step up when it counts."

I'll tell you, if we need people like Soros speaking for our party, then we are in a whole heap of trouble.

It's time for responsible people to speak up and keep this election from becoming a sideshow of disgusting claims and hysterical attacks. More of my fellow Democrats — including Kerry — need to put America first and turn their backs on the wild-eyed partisans who want to tear us apart.

I still love the Democratic Party — the party of Roosevelt and Truman and Kennedy. But the more screaming and ranting I hear, the more I wonder whether those Democratic heroes of old would find much to be proud of today.

[WarEagle]

Don't want to rain on your parade about ol' Zell, but he's one of those most responsible for giving us 8 years of the Clintoons.

Remember his seconding speech at the 1992 Dem convention? "Bill Clinton feels your pain!"

The man honestly uttered that phrase. Enough to make you want to puke. If the GOP had fielded a decent candidate for Governor in 1994, ol' Zig-Zag Zell (as Sean Hannity used to call him) would have been toast. No Senate seat after the death of Paul Coverdell, no votes against Bush administration court nominees, no trashing of John Ashcroft.

Pardon me if my eyes are still dry and remain that way. If Zell was a patriot, he would have made a seconding speech for GHW Bush instead of turning the Beverly Freaking Hillbillies loose on the United States.

[malia]

I would like to think Sam Nunn is thinking along these lines.

[manic4organic]

Let's help make the title of Zell's recent book a reality.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Thanks for posting. I may never have read it unless it was posted here.

[speekinout]

I can understand why Zell would stay a Dem. He had a long career as a Dem politician, and he might prefer to rehabilitate the party rather than to desert it. (Heaven knows, it needs rehabilitation!)

What he's doing now as a "Dem. for Bush" might be more important than anything he could do by switching parties now. If he can influence more Dems to support Bush, he will have done a lot.

[Capt. Tom]

Why is he still a Democrat?

I quote an excerpt from a thread I started on FR awhile back.

Let’s look at the so-called Democrats, and Socialists first.

The Socialists started to infiltrate and take over the Democrat party in the mid 1960s, and today the so-called Democrat party is the Socialist party.

The Democrat party today is not the party of John Breau, Zell Miller or Harry Truman. This Democrat party is for communists, socialists, America haters and sexual deviants. People who could never get elected without a 'D' or 'R' after their name. This is the party of Michael Moore, Barney Frank and Barbara Streisand.

And unfortunately it still has the confused remnants of the Democrat party; many of who are good hard working Americans who love this country, who would defend it with their lives and want it to be successful. They don’t seem to realize their party has been hi-jacked by the Socialists. The option of voting Republican for many democrats is too revolting to consider. It takes a long time to get the message

[Lando Lincoln]

Hi Betsy...that's what makes Free Republic the best!

Lando

[dixie sass]

Is there anyway you can make look as good as you and Senator Miller?

[TASMANIANRED]

If the US had followed the example of the french in WWII, not only would we have surrendered promptly, we would have started rounding up all Jewish people and shipping them off for execution.

[firewalk]

bttt