Zell Miller: Rabid dog or just insane?

[markinore]

From Salon:

 

Zell goes wild

 

Maybe Zell Miller was just strung too tight following his wild-eyed attack on John Kerry Wednesday night. But following his primetime convention address, he made the rounds on the cable TV circuit and stole the show -- and not in a good way. Miller’s speech was so over-the-top (he essentially questioned Kerry’s loyalty to America), it prompted mild-mannered talking head David Gergen to compare Miller to racist demagogue Lester Maddox, while Time’s Joe Klein had to pick his jaw up off the ground before he could analyze it. But Miller's post-speech cable performance was even more jaw-dropping, as he first badly fumbled questions from CNN anchors, then lost it with "Hardball's" Chris Matthews, repeatedly challenging the MSNBC host to a duel and telling him to "shut up."

 

On CNN, he came under respectful but close questioning from Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff and Jeff Greenfield, who pressed the wayward Democrat about why he mocked Kerry for using the phrase "occupiers" when describing U.S. troops in Iraq (Miller prefers "liberators"), when President Bush has himself used the same phrase for the same U.S. troops. Miller clearly had no idea that was the case and passed on giving a response. He was also asked why just three years ago he had introduced Kerry in Georgia as an American hero who had worked hard for our nation’s security (the speech is still up on Miller's Web site). Miller suggested he was new to the Senate at the time and basically didn’t know what he was talking about.

 

And about those weapons system votes that Miller criticized Kerry for making over a decade ago -- wasn’t it true while as Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney raised similar doubts about those very same systems? Miller said he’d let Cheney answer that himself. Finally, Blitzer asked Miller why he looked so angry during his speech, and couldn't that hurt the cause he was pushing? Miller, who in fact looked like he was suffering from flashback Atlanta road rage at the podium periodically, said he was sorry if he came across as angry because he didn’t mean to.

 

But that was just the warm up. Next it was over to Chris Matthews’ "Hardball" on MSNBC where Miller, perhaps still bruised by his wobbly CNN showing, just plain lost it. Actually, Miller appeared from Madison Square Garden, while "Hardball’s" set was over in Herald Square. And when Miller was announced he was greeted with a chorus of "boos" by the crowd of local Democrats assembled behind the "Hardball" taping area. Things went downhill for Miller from there.

 

Matthews asked Miller to defend his speech, and particularly his allegations that John Kerry voted "against" various defense appropriations. (As both Matthews and Miller know, voting against a large appropriations bill doesn't necessarily mean that you disapprove of every part of the bill). Miller got progressively angrier as Matthews persisted in holding him to his statement, telling Matthews several times that he wished he was in the studio so he could "get up in your face."

 

As Miller steamed, Matthews asked him if he thought that he was helping the political discourse in the country, and then, whether he even thought he was helping the Republicans by what he was saying. At that point Miller’s meltdown peaked. He started waving his arms around, demanding Matthews "shut up" and let him answer the question. Miller then lapsed into a dialogue with himself wondering, “I don’t know why I even came on this program,” before returning to Matthews and announcing he wished they lived in a previous era because he would have "challenged you to a duel."

 

Thursday morning, Miller may deny he was serious when he said all of that, but the semi-deranged expression on his face at that moment suggested he'd truly lost control. Matthews, slightly embarrassed by the whole thing, laughed off Miller's left field explosion, and invited him back tonight in person for a "more civil discussion." More importantly, Matthews insisted the show would get great ratings because everybody would be waiting to see if Miller was going to "beat me up."

 

Later, country star Larry Gatlin told MSNBC's Ron Reagan that Matthews was "out of line" and "rude." When the live audience booed, Gatlin told them "shut up or we'll have another duel." Another example of how Republicans are making good on George Bush's 2000 promise to "change the tone" of American politics -- apparently substituting dueling for debate. "Tonight was the night of the Angry White Men at the Republican convention," said former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, quickly adding, "I don't mean that in a bad way," as if he was just too tired to get into a fight over it.

 

The hilarious thing about that is up to then, the Republicans had done such a great job of keeping the extra-chromosome types out of view. Instead, they had been so disciplined about giving more air time to the Giulianis, Schwartzeneggers, and McCains in an effort to appear centrist. Miller, no doubt, was allowed off leash to toss a little red meat to the far right. As extreme as his speech was, there was no way any of the Republicans could have expected him to go off on Chris Matthews the way he did.

 

Please, if there is a God, let Him put Zell on Hardball tonight.

 

Now that I think of it, I wonder if Zell doesn't post here every once in a while.

[cracked]

The Howard Dean of the right. Though I did laugh while reading his speech.

[mtn_mouse]

 

Zell goes wild

 

 

Wow, what a show. How did you like it when his head launched right off his shoulders, straight up to the cieling. Last seen, his head was still rocketing upwards towards Mars.

[Gary_Yngve]

Wow, I met him once or twice back when he was governor of GA, and he was totally different. I don't get it.

[scott_harpell]

I watched a clip of him yelling the same stuff against G. Bush Sr. After watching his explanation, I do think he has some serious gripes with the democratic party; though it does seem he is overlooking some of the same shit in the GOP. Anyone thinking someone has their eye on a 2008 GOP nomination?

[glacier]

From TNR:

http://www.tnr.com/blog/rnc?week=2004-09-01#top

 

MILLER ON MATTHEWS: Zell Miller made it quite clear that he has nothing but contempt for John Kerry. But he apparently wants to duel Chris Matthews. Last night, about an hour after delivering his jeremiad to a packed hall in Madison Square Garden, Miller--who was still inside a then-emptying Garden--did an interview with Matthews, who was on the "Hardball" set a few blocks away.

 

Matthews, who like many in the press was taken aback by the harshness of Miller's speech, asked Miller repeatedly if he really believed Kerry didn't want to defend the country, and Miller replied by ticking off some of the weapons systems Kerry has voted against. When Matthews asked which of those programs the U.S. had used in Afghanistan, Miller essentially accused Matthews of reading from Kerry campaign talking points: "I knew you was going to be coming with all of that stuff," he told Matthews. "And I knew that these people from the Kerry campaign would be coming with all this kind of stuff."

 

So things were already combative when Matthews tried to make an analogy that Miller evidently misunderstood. Matthews asked Miller whether conservatives accusing liberals of not wanting to defend America when those liberals vote against a weapons system was the same thing as liberals accusing conservatives of wanting to starve little kids when they vote against some social programs. But Miller seemed to think that Matthews was accusing him of wanting to starve little kids. The Georgia Senator erupted:

 

 

MILLER: I am not saying that. Wait a minute.

 

MATTHEWS: That kind of rhetoric is not educational, is it?

 

MILLER: Wait a minute.

 

Now, this is your program. And I am a guest on your program.

 

MATTHEWS: Yes, sir.

 

MILLER: And so I want to try to be as nice as I possibly can to you. I wish I was over there, where I could get a little closer up into your face.

 

(LAUGHTER)

 

MILLER: But I don't have to stand here and listen to that kind of stuff. I didn't say anything about not feeding poor kids. What are you doing?

The interview continued in this vein. Here's a particularly fun bit of the transcript:

 

 

MILLER: Get out of my face.

 

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

 

MILLER: If you are going to ask me a question, step back and let me answer.

 

(LAUGHTER)

 

MATTHEWS: Senator, please.

 

MILLER: You know, I wish we...

 

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

 

MILLER: I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel.

 

(LAUGHTER)

 

MILLER: Now, that would be pretty good.

 

Don't ask me--don't pull that...

 

(CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: Can you come over? I need you, Senator. Please come over.

 

MILLER: Wait a minute. Don't pull that kind of stuff on me, like you did that young lady when you had her there, browbeating her to death. I am not her. I am not her.

 

MATTHEWS: Let me tell you, she was suggesting that John Kerry purposely shot himself to win a medal. And I was trying to correct the record.

 

MILLER: You get in my face, I am going to get back in your face.

Miller's threats worked, because, for the rest of the interview, Matthews was surprisingly soft-spoken and docile. And when it was over, he invited Miller to come on his show again the next night. "And, by the way, you will help our ratings tremendously if you come over tomorrow night," Matthews said, "because everybody thinks you are going to beat me up."

[mtn_mouse]

September 02, 2004

Zell and the Democratic hell

If the Democratic Party was anything like the Catholic church, it would immediately launch defrocking proceedings against Zell Miller.

The apostate Democrat from Georgia showed no mercy on Wednesday, delivering a keynote address to the Republican National Convention that was full of enough fire and brimstone to create its own microclimate.

Miller, though, also showed no mirth. This could be a problem. He was too busy trying to burn John Kerry at the stake to even smile. Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales called him a "pit bull" that livened up the convention "to an almost rabid state."

Are the Torquemada tactics smart politics? Training the primetime spotlight on an old angry, sarcastic white guy might not be the best way for the GOP to win over the legions of women, Latinos and undecided voters that could well decide the Nov. 2 election.

Still, Miller's torrent was amusing, if only because it marked such a dramatic departure from some of his earlier comments.

Just three years ago, for example, Miller lavished Kerry with praise at a dinner in Georgia. "My job tonight is an easy one: to present to you one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders – and a good friend," Miller said of his Massachusetts colleague.

To Republicans on Wednesday, Miller lambasted Kerry for being "more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure" on national security. "As a Senator," Miller fumed, Kerry "voted to weaken our military."

But at the dinner in 2001, Miller praised Kerry as a lawmaker who "has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment."

On Wednesday, Miller prompted a rousing response from delegates when he said, "Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security." Among the systems, Miller said, was the Apache helicopter used by the army to take out Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War.

What Miller didn't say was that the man who followed him at the podium at Madison Square Garden, Vice President Dick Cheney, proposed eliminating the Apache and other weapons programs when he served as defense secretary under the first President Bush. Back then, of course, cutting programs was the order of the day, what with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It was back then that Miller delivered one of his best known speeches - at the Democratic National Convention in 1992. Like Wednesday's assault, that speech was also pure red meat.

"I am a Democrat because we are the party of hope," Miller said. "For 12 dark years the Republicans have dealt in cynicism and skepticism. They've mastered the art of division and diversion, and they have robbed us of our hope."

Some of his best stuff was directed at the president Bill Clinton would go on to defeat.

"Four years ago, Mr. Bush told us he was a quiet man, who hears the voices of quiet people," Miller said. "Today, we know the truth. George Bush is a timid man who hears only the voices of caution and the status quo."

And then there was what turned out to be the Miller's most famous line: "We can't all be born rich, handsome and lucky," Miller said, "and that's why we have a Democratic Party."

Guess he forgot about the Kennedys. The again, Miller seems to forget a lot of things