Ben Jones skewers Zell

[klook]

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fri., Aug. 20, 2004

Miller untrue to donkeys and turtles

by Ben Jones, former GA 4th District Congressional Representative

Zell Miller has a serious credibility problem. Around home, Miller is affectionately known as "Zig Zag Zell" for his decades-long broken field run through the shifting minefield that is Southern politics. But now, in his new role as the head cheerleader and snarling pit bull for the Bush campaign, he is attempting something that has exceeded even his own legendary talents at shape shifting. These days, Zell is insisting that despite his apparent treachery, he is in fact a loyal Democrat and it is all the other Democrats who are not really Democrats anymore.

Like Captain Renault in "Casablanca," Miller is "shocked" that special interests have great influence in the Democratic Party and that the party has lost resonance in America's heartland. His clever solution to this very real problem is to trashtalk his colleagues, to attack the party regulars who have carried him on their shoulders through countless elections, and to become the media darling of the same folks who have vilified him for years.

Never mind that his new best friends in the GOP have mastered the art of government by political action committee contribution and have rammed through reactionary legislation created by and for their corporate cronies. Miller knows that and he knows, too, that if he were truly honest and honorable and changed his party affiliation to Republican, he would no more be asked to speak at their convention than would Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). It is the big "D" he unproudly wears on his chest that gets him the attention he craves.

Now, I've been a Zell watcher since back during the civil rights movement, when I was getting whacked upside the head by bigots and he was calling the Voting Rights Act a Communist plot. Having done a little politickin' myself, I fully understand the way certain "public servants" can argue things flat or argue them round, can put a finger in the air and know unerringly which way the wind is blowing, and can feel that ancient call of the siren, the one that whispers: "You ain't getting enough attention. Go out there on 'Meet the Press' and stir things up."

More: http://www.ajc.com/print/content/epaper/editions/friday/opinion_145239df90b622ce00b0.html
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[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. The AJC is no left-wing paper so this is saying alot about who...

Zell "Dick Russell's Love Child" Miller really is, or is not.

[klook]

2. True

Ben Jones, despite his years of playing Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard TV show, was a pretty left-of-center Congressman, for Georgia, anyway (in Cynthia McKinney's district). The AJC doesn't often run commentaries by such pinkos.