Ah weird old Zell the chameleon. He went from segregationist to Carter liberal to Clintonite “New Dem” to “Conservative” (moderate) Democrat to Republican-supporting literal DINO. Whatever the prevailing wind in Georgia was at the time.
Allegedly (possibly dubious) he backed Mike Gravel (liberal in the Senate, he was running as a left-libertarian and thus the least bad of the rat candidate) in 2008. If true that’s another weird shift, this time to the left.
Anyway he’s long gone. And he propped up Tom Daschle’s “Majority” for 2 years. A conservative who supports democrat control of a legislative body either
a)Isn’t really conservative
b)union-owned
C)Braindead
D)Cares more about their own power than anything (in the case of some members of the current still rat controlled southern legislatures)
The deceased Republican he replaced and the Republican he beat in the 2000 special election were both superior to Zell who up until his last year or 2 voted like a moderate.
Actual conservative (not moderate) democrats in congress are a thing of the past. A relic from the one party south. I couldn’t tell you the last one in the Senate who had a truly conservative voting record. Henry Byrd Jr. from Virginia maybe. He left the rats to sit as an independent but still caucused with them until he retired in 1982.
I vote for E), all of the above. The Senate was split 50-50 and "conservative" Zig Zag would have made the difference in Senate control if he hadn't sided with the left. Guys like Zig Zag Zell and Joe LIEberman show where the loyalities really are when they vote to put socialist RATs in power when chips are down and we truly "need" them to deliver for us, as opposed to when they put on a dog and pony show about "endorsing" a big-government Republican presidential candidate on TV. Zig Zag Zell also endorsed and campaign hard for liberal Max Cleland in 2002 (incorrectly assuming Cleland would win due to incumbency), though his fans here quickly forgave him because he gave nice "I'm a rock-ribbed southern conservative" speeches later when he wasn't running for re-election.
I think most of Zig Zag Zell's newfound "conservativism" (which he retroactively used to claim he had been a conservative "all along") was because he was retiring and could ca$h in on the GOP riding high in the 2004 elections (controlling all three branches of government at the time), and Zell could make a killing in book sales if he got kissy with the "winning" team and played "maverick" (knowing the RAT party couldn't retaliate and/or punish him for it). When he still had to make it thur RAT party primaries, Zell would cast his vote with the left on key votes. Zell Miller, like Mark Kirk, stands for whatever advances Zell Miller's clout at that moment in history.
Note that in 2006 and 2008, when the momentum was with the RATs, Zell kept a low profile and didn't actively speak out for the "conservative" cause. There was nothing in it for him. And of course when Clinton was riding high in the polls back in 1992, Zell was Bubba's BFFF.
>> The deceased Republican he replaced and the Republican he beat in the 2000 special election were both superior to Zell who up until his last year or 2 voted like a moderate. <<
I'll go one step further and point out that the "RINO" who replaced Zell, Johnny Iskason, had a better overall voting record as well and a higher lifetime ACU rating. I have to wonder what side freepers are on when they vote for and applaud a RAT who puts Daschle in power but decry a GOP replacement who has gone to bat for conservative causes far more consistently.
At most, you could say Zell turned out far better than expected and Roy Barnes probably regretted the appointment and wished he had chosen another RAT. But Zell certainly wasn't a "good conservative" until the final two years of his term and his suddenly swing to the right was as unpredictable as when Kennedy appointed Byron White due to promises he made big labor and ended with a right-of-center judge instead of the liberal they expected.
Zell Miller's Senate career was pretty much a strange fluke due to Zell's political whore-monger nature. One "abolish the 17th amendment" adovcate actually told me we would NEVER have Senators voting for amnesty if state governments got to make the appointment instead of voters. Am I to believe that Lisa Murkowski, Roland Burris, Michael Bennett, Ted Kaufman, and Bob Menendez were expected to be "anti-amnesty" Senators when their state officials put them in the U.S. Senate? Bizarre stuff.