Posted on 9/20/2004, 1:39:21 PM by SmithPatterson
In memo, Miller calls Democrats 'disaster'
By JIM THARPE The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Democratic U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, in a new memo to Georgia Democratic candidates, labels former President Jimmy Carter, state party chairman Bobby Kahn and former congressman Ben Jones "a Board of Deacons for Democratic Disaster."
Miller, national chairman of Democrats for Bush, also admonishes the candidates that the "only way most of you will have a chance" to be elected is to "get [Democratic presidential candidate John] Kerry from around your neck, and do it quickly and loudly."
"At least he didn't challenge me to a duel," Kahn said Sunday, alluding to a TV appearance Miller made after delivering the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention last month. Miller, upset at interviewer Chris Matthews, told Matthews that in an earlier time, he might have challenged him to a duel.
Carter and Kahn attacked Miller after the convention speech, saying he had betrayed his party. Miller also has been targeted for broadsides by Jones, who once represented a Georgia district and now lives in Virginia. Jones is best known for his role as Cooter on the 1980s TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard."
"Carter, Kahn and Cooter — a Board of Deacons for Democratic Disaster if ever I've seen one," Miller wrote in the two-page typed memo addressed "To: All Georgia Democratic Candidates" and delivered over the weekend.
"They have become our spokesmen because our constitutional officers and legislative leaders are so timid that they are like those monkeys who 'See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil' about the current direction of our party."
A spokeswoman for Miller's office confirmed that the senator had written the memo, which carries his name at the top and his address in Young Harris, his North Georgia hometown. The aide did not know how many of the memos Miller mailed.
'Killing our party'
In the memo, Miller said that in 1972, when he was executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, he and party leaders worked out a way to maintain Democratic dominance in Georgia by avoiding any connection between their top candidates and then-Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, an anti-war candidate who lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon.
"But today, unfortunately, no one in our party even dares to think like this, and it is killing our party," he wrote, accusing Kahn of hanging "John Kerry around the neck of every one of our candidates."
Miller ends his memo by writing, "Those who have bothered to read this far may be asking yourself, why would Miller waste a stamp to send me this? Because despite what your leaders say about me. . . . I still care deeply about the Georgia Democratic Party in which I've worked for more than five decades."
Kahn said Miller "repeatedly turned down" invitations to help the state party rebuild in 2003, the year after it lost the governor's office and the state Senate to Republicans for the first time in 130 years.
"That doesn't sound like someone who cares deeply about the Democratic Party in Georgia or anywhere else," Kahn said. He said Miller is experiencing "buyer's remorse" for cozying up to the GOP.
Miller a betrayer?
Earlier this month, Carter wrote a letter to Miller accusing him of betraying the party, and Democrats set up a Web site that raised money for their candidates after Miller's speech to the GOP in New York.
Georgia Democrats are hoping to retake the state Senate and hold on to the House in November. But Miller predicted that with its "current leadership and philosophy," the state party would fail to reclaim majorities in Georgia "outside Atlanta and a few other places."
"I'm sorry some of my old legislative friends find themselves fighting for their political lives today," Miller wrote. "But I didn't put you there. The current leaders of our party did, and you allowed them to do so.
"The sad thing is that there has not been one single moderate or conservative Democrat in the state willing to question their leadership."
Come November, we'll see if Zell is right about Georgia.
Glory, glory Zellelujah...the truth is marching on!
Bump.
Make no mistake about it, there will be no viable third party for many, many, years to come, if ever.
Good luck Zell Miller.
Yeah their party has leaned too far to the left and alientated the moderate majority. The same would happen to us if we leaned too far to the right sad to say.
To the dems, Zell Miller is a betrayer, but Jumpin' Jim Jeffords, who was elected to the Senate as a Republican and then immediately became an Independent (throwing control of the Senate to the dems)--he's a man of principle, a real hero.
From the same people that thought Jumpin Jimmy Jeffords finally saw the light and turned over control of the Senate to the Dumbocrats 4 months into Bush's first term.
From the same people that thought Jumpin Jimmy Jeffords finally saw the light and turned over control of the Senate to the Dumbocrats 4 months into Bush's first term.
That is TRUE BETRAYAL. All his Senate colleages were thrust into the minority, what a guy.
The Zell Miller Memo is fake, but the story is true.
Jimmy Carter, the worst president and the worst ex-president.
The only people who respect Carter pine for the glory days of the USSR.
Zell is right.
Imho, billy klinton and his band of unethical, nasty, anything to win cabal were the final straw.
They forced about everyone in the dem party to defend the indefensible.
Once you do that....you lose a bit of your soul.
It is a crying shame that the party of grown-ups no longer has a worthy adversary.
But instead, finds its opponent to be a party full of liberal elites, all hung over from the 60's hippie era, basically (with the exception of the undereducated hollywood nut cases and the university professors who lack real world experience) who dispise our nation and have willingly sacrificed ethical and moral principals for the money special interests bring to their coffers.
It's a crying shame. Instead of the raucous slam bam of great ideas, all geared toward methodology to achieve common goals, taking center stage, we find ourselves fighting a genuine enemy of our nation....an enemy within...children who do not understand that FREEDOM is the only way to world peace. That FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE! And that would be FREEDOM for everyone. EVERYONE.
Think it will be a whole 1.5? ;)
Well said!
Amazing, Zell believes in BI-PARTISAN politics, and he's accused of betraying his PARTY. Well the dems need to go back and listen to his speech, because in so many words, Zell accused the democrats of betraying their COUNTRY.
And in my mind country trumps party EVERY time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.