SwiftVets.com

[LewWaters]

Zell Miller reminded me of the old Democratic Party I grew up in down South. It's too bad that the leaders have taken the party so far left. If the party ever moved back towards the center, I might be tempted to support them again.
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Clark County Conservative

[.::geo::.]

I saw the link for the video to the Chris Matthews interview, but I found some of the text as well. As it says "some highlights", I'm still looking for the whole thing. Zell may be 72, but I'd hate to get in a spat with the guy! Zell rules!

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/2/90023.shtml

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Some highlights:
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 can 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: Do you believe they want to defend the country?

MILLER: Look, I applaud what John Kerry did as far as volunteering to go to Vietnam. I applaud what he did when he volunteered for combat. I admire that, and I respect that. And I acknowledge that. I have said that many, many times.

MATTHEWS: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: But I think his record is atrocious.

MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask you, when Democrats come out, as they often do, liberal Democrats, and attack conservatives and say they want to starve little kids, they want to get rid of education, they want to kill the old people ...

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? ...

MATTHEWS: OK. Do you believe now – do you believe, Senator, truthfully, that John Kerry wants to defend the country with spitballs? Do you believe that?

MILLER: That was a metaphor, wasn't it? Do you know what a metaphor is?

MATTHEWS: Well, what do you mean by a metaphor?

MILLER: Wait a minute. He certainly does not want to defend the country with the B-1 bomber or the B-2 bomber or the Harrier jet or the Apache helicopter or all those other things that I mentioned. And there were even more of them in here.

You've got to quit taking these Democratic talking points and using what they are saying to you.

MATTHEWS: No, I am using your talking points and asking you if you really believe them.

MILLER: Well, use John Kerry's talking points from the – from what he has had to say on the floor of the Senate, where he talked about them being occupiers, where he put out this whenever he was running for the U.S. Senate about what he wanted to cancel. Cancel to me means to do away with.

MATTHEWS: Well, what did you mean by the following ...

MILLER: I think we ought to cancel this interview. [END OF EXCERPTS]

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[flushthejohns]

Zell Miller's speech was electrifying and exilerating to listen to. I've listened to it twice since last night. I know Zell would give 'em hell!
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http://www.johnfkerrysucks.com
http://www.stopkerrynow.com/forum/index.php

[Robert Cooper]

That's the Democratic Party that I remember!

Having been a democrat of 26 years, I changed my party affiliation 4 years ago and voted for Bush and Cheney.

In light of the statements made by Senior Democratic Senators of Congress in defense of Bill Clinton's infidelity and lying to the Grand Jury about it, I knew my party represented something other than truth and honor.

In light of the refusal of my party to vote yes on the question of whether Clinton was guilty or not, after they all admitted that he was clearly guilty, I knew my party represented something other than sound jurisprudence and further revealed that their idea of the law is something that applies to the common U.S. citizens - but, doesn't apply to themselves!

In light of the outrageous Florida recount, trying to interject illegally biased techniques for counting chads, I knew my party was willing to lie, cheat and steal in order to get their desired effects.

In light of James Carville's "Declaration of War against the Republicans" on Meet the Press - I knew that my party was going to contradict, lie, disagree - and yes, even sabatage any and all of Republican's efforts for the next four years - and they did! And that on an every day basis!

In light of all these, I knew that my party had left everything decent and honest and this drove me to distant myself from this insane, sociopathic party character.

However, just recently I became convinced that my former party had funded, promoted and staged the Kerry Hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1971 - an event that was pre-meditated and pre-rehearsed using bogus soldiers with fraudulent testimonies represented by John Kerry who was willing provided the needed lie that would assure the success of the Committee's pre-existing agenda.

In light of this new discovery that the Democratic Pary, the Committee of Foreign Affairs of 1971, John Kerry and VVAW, the Liberal Mainstream Media and all their financial backers - collectively collaborated to lie to our U.S. Congress and to the American People which resulted in the wrongful dishonor of our Armed Forces and the murderous masacre of millions of innocent South Vietnamese - I now have a personal resolve - ie, I will never, never, never - return to the Democratic Party.

Zell Miller's speech last night made me for a very brief moment feel ashamed that I abandoned my old party - but, I don't believe this party can be reformed - I suggest that those Democrats, that agree with Zell Miller, separate themselves and form a Traditional Democratic Party and force the liberal faction to call themselves by what they really are - ie, The Socialist Pary! "Progressive" is a euphemism for "Socialist"!
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Know the difference between Politics and Mesmeratics - one embraces, propagates and promotes the truth, while the other manipulates it!

[Fort Campbell]

Thanks for the Link to the Matthews interview. I missed that. After watching it all I can say is "Give 'em, Hell, Zell!".

[Jerry M]

Someday when the Democratic Party wakes up and crawls out of the left wing sewer it finds itself in, they will reflect back on this speech as a turning point that got them back on track to acting in the best interests of America and not just for their own political power.

[Hammer2]

Zell Miller's speech was the opening shot in a battle for the soul of the Democratic party. He has begun a great national debate about what it means to be a Democrat.

I believe that the party is too far gone to salvage and that only a new national party will be able to create a home for people who have traditional Democratic values.
In Texas, where I live, I have seen the state change from a Democratic state to a state where all of the state elected officers are Republicans. The state legislature is now majority Republican, as are most of the elected Judges in the state. I think many people here would say that they were raised in "Yellow Dog" Democrat families. Zell is just like the people here in Texas.
I originally thought this election would be important because of the war. I was wrong, this election has caused a political earthquake that is going to reshape the entire course of our nation for decades to come. The closest similar event I can recall is the 1929 stock market collapse that began the Great Depression that ushered in Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic party. They enjoyed absolute power for almost 62 years(in the legislative branch).
This is one of those events.
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"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence" - Thomas Jefferson
"An armed society is a polite society" - Thomas Jefferson
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it won't be needed until someone tries to take it away." -- Thomas Jefferson

[larrygj]

First there were the Reagan Democrats. Now we will see a lot of Zell Democrats. Look for some mass defections.

Daschle must be scrambling like hell to see if he can find some old pictures of him and Zell embracing. You'll see the Sissy Fit of the Century if Zell comes to South Dakota and tells those good folks some truths about Daschle.

Who knew what those little aluminum boats from the 1960s would launch in 2004!

Larry

[WalterW]

This was the most effective and important line in the entire speech, in my opinion.

[Frank B]

Zell Miller cut a swath thru the Democratic "girlie men." He knew he would come under attack for his speech but that didn't matter to this man dedicated to serving his country, not his own selfish agenda. He deserves our admiration for standing up and speaking out about his party's direction while his fellow Dems watch their party self-destruct.

On John Gibson's "My Word," Terry McAuliffe barfed the notion that Zell's speech rendered serious damage to the Republican Party. What tripe!! McAuliffe and all his associate Mattel flamethrowers can't see what is so obvious: THE TRUTH. He looks at the Stars and Stripes and calls it a swastika. He smells a rose and calls it a skunk. He lacks what Marc Racicot, the RNC Chairman has in abundance: CLASS!! He's a walking minus sign.
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"Any government that believes money should be taken from Peter to pay Paul will, of course,
have the support of Paul" -- G B Shaw

[Polaris]

Daschle is fighing for his political life in N. Dakota against Thune and losing....and the reasons can be summed up in Sen. Zell Miller's speech.
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-Polaris

Truth is Beauty

[wvobiwan]

[Chuck54]

Given the responses to this thread, I would say that we have a lot of
Zellots on this forum, including yours truly.
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"And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often, than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry"

Zell Miller

[WalterW]

Great term - and I now consider myself a ZELLOT
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"We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways." John F. Kerry, February, 1992

[MAXX]

http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow200409021518.asp

The Zell Factor
Can Sen. Miller grab undecideds? Can Bush harvest more conservatives?

Senator Zell Miller’s white-hot convention speech was a tremendous energizer for delegates and spectators alike. People repeatedly jumped to their feet in wild applause as the veteran Georgia Democrat and former governor took Senator John Kerry apart piece by piece, limb by limb. The former Marine from the hill country bordering Georgia and North Carolina revived a form of campaign oratory from the old-school of Southern Democrats. Some bloggers refer to it as Jacksonian. It’s a take-no-prisoners approach. It’s truth telling as he believes it.

Miller has had an extraordinary career. He worked up the ranks of the Georgia Democratic party as state senator, lieutenant governor, state party chairman, governor, and then U.S. senator. With his political skills on full display at the Republican convention on Wednesday night, it was easy to see why he has had such a successful career.

But . . .

A big question is whether or not Sen. Miller’s bravura performance can launch a wave of defections from conservative-leaning Democrats to the Bush camp. It’s also unknown whether or not such a wave can spill over to conservative independents, people who despite the conventional wisdom are still very much in the undecided camp.

A fascinating poll authored by Raghavan Mayur, the president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence and a pollster for Investor’s Business Daily, strongly suggests that George W. Bush has an electoral problem with conservatives. That’s right — conservatives. According to Mayur’s survey, Bush is now pulling support from two-thirds of self-identified conservatives, which is 15 percentage points less than he claimed in exit polls in 2000.

Mayur finds that conservatives make up 29 percent of those who voted in the last presidential election. So if Bush could make up the 15 point deficit, he would pick up 4 ½ percentage points overall — something that would surely give him a decided advantage in this November’s tally.

Mayur also finds that conservative Democrats, independents, and even some Republicans are still not ready to cast their lot with Bush. Why not? Well, they don’t think he’s conservative enough. On what issues? Government spending and deficits, immigration, the war in Iraq, and a relatively weak jobs recovery. And — get this — independent conservative women are not sure about Bush’s positions on gay marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research, all of which they strongly oppose.


Going back to Zell Miller’s stemwinder on Wednesday night, as effective as the senator was rhetorically, he did not mention spending or deficits or social issues. In fact, not one of the primetime speakers at the convention has done a good job of this.

Miller’s most striking success came when he provided new information on John Kerry’s dismal military voting record over two decades in the Senate. The Georgian pointed out that Kerry opposed the B-1 bomber, the B-2 bomber, the F-14A Tomcat, the modernized F-14D, the Apache helicopter, the F-15 Eagle, the Patriot missile, the Aegis air-defense cruiser, the strategic defense initiative, and the Trident missile.

Following this litany of anti-defense votes by Kerry, Miller asked rhetorically, “This is a man who wants to be commander in chief of our U.S. armed forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?”

This is devastating stuff. It certainly hammers home the point that Harry Truman Democrats should cast their lot with George Bush, not John Kerry. Surprisingly, though, Miller did not mention the late Sen. Henry Jackson, a more recent pro-defense Democratic icon, and the John F. Kennedy tax cuts (Miller himself is a strong supporter of the Bush tax cuts). These oversights are striking as Scoop Jackson and the fiscally conservative JFK are much discussed in Miller’s book, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat.

I interviewed Sen. Miller on the morning after his speech. I asked him about bringing over Democrats to Bush’s side. He said, “Bush himself, who is a likeable person and sound on the issues, will get a lot of Democrats and independents from his own efforts and record.” But Miller will lend a hand; he will be traveling this weekend to battleground states in Ohio and Pennsylvania “in order to change some minds and help people learn about Kerry’s record.”

But that still leaves an important set of tasks for President Bush. Literally, the whole world will be watching his convention speech Thursday night. In concrete terms, the president must take us through his thinking on Iraq, on the missing weapons of mass destruction, on linking Iraqi freedom and Saddam’s removal with homeland security and safety, on a second-term agenda for taxes, jobs, and the economy, on Social Security reform, on the unfinished items in health and education, and on the social issues of gay marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research.

Thus far, the convention has shown the GOP to be a big-tent party. But conservative voters still anchor this tent. The success of Bush’s reelection campaign may well rest on his ability to harvest a bigger crop of conservative votes.

— Larry Kudlow, NRO's Economics Editor, is CEO of Kudlow & Co. and host with Jim Cramer of CNBC's Kudlow & Cramer.