Posted on 12/29/2004 4:43:39 AM PST by beyond the sea
The most heartening language trend of 2004 was the revival of the old-fashioned insult.
When MSNBC's Chris Matthews, sitting in the safety of his studio, had some tough questions for U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., after Miller's over-the-top keynote address at the Republican National Convention, Miller went all Aaron Burr on him: "I wish I was over there, where I could get a little closer into your face. . . . I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel." Miller was giving away about 20 years and 90 pounds to Matthews. But Miller's crazed stare - he looked like Granny Clampett training her shotgun on a stray varmint - was enough to cause even the overbearing Matthews to back off.
The performance won Miller, who is retiring from the Senate, a job at the Fox News Channel, which apparently had not yet reached its quota of scary gasbags.
Zell Miller isn't the only irascible old man leaving the Senate. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, the smooth-talking South Carolina Democrat, is retiring, too. A few years ago, when a Republican opponent dared Hollings to take a drug test, Hollings said: "I'll take a drug test if you take an I.Q. test."
Until Miller and Matthews clashed in September, that was about as close as any modern politician had come to challenging an opponent to a duel.
Maybe 2005 will bring the real thing. They could cablecast it on Fox and MSNBC: Miller and Matthews, pistols ......... at 50 paces.
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
The first lines of the article are rife with bias.....
I think Miller can take him, toe to toe.
The writer evidently did not see and hear this exchange himself. Had he done so, he would know that Chris Mathews was NOT "safely sitting in his studio". He had his whole program while seated outside, surrounded by crowds of Kerry supporters, and the split screen exchange w/Zell came when ZELL was inside.
Zell was a Marine, enough said.
Well, he outweighs him because he's a fat lard ass. I don't know that in a real scuffle that's much of an advantage unless the lazy Matthews intends to fall on the nimble, hard-hitting Zell. In that case, it could get interesting. But I still think Matthews would mostly be crying. He's really just another bed-wetting liberal.
Zell could beat his ass. He is a country boy and learned to fight with other country boys.
No bias here. Nope.
This was "over the top" - a Kerry supporter ripping up a little girls sign. 
The event roughly coincided with Zell Miller's speech in the news cycle, but I doubt this liberal rag had the guts to report it.
Whenever liberals squeal like stuck pigs (as in the reaction to Zell Miller's speech), you know you struck a truth nerve and they cannot stand it.
Sorry to be a little off topic here... but does anyone have a link to the "Call me Mamma_T" clip? Nobody beleives me. Thx
Yes, you're right, that's why I chose to leave out the quotes of Rummy that were badly misrepresented later in the article.
"had some tough questions for U.S. Sen. Zell Miller" -- a positive for Spitball Matthews from the author, "Miller's over-the-top keynote address" -- a negative toward Zell from the author, "But Miller's crazed stare" -- another negative comment on Zell.
Yes, the author is grinding an ax of sorts.
I'd love to see it! Only thing to fear for Zell is all that spit coming out of Matthews' thin foolish lips. After Zell guns him down, Michelle Malkin could throw the dirt on the body to pay 'Spitball' back for the terrible way he treated her this past year!
That's right. That was one funny night on TV.
After Matthews got his nerve back after initially being scared to death by Zell, you could see the wheels in Matthews blockhead spinning, thinking how this little affair could be used for his promotional purposes. It was great TV.
Zell ripping into lard-butt Mathews was one of the highlights this past election. I saw the exchange live and laughed my a$$ off. I'm even grinning now as I type this.
Mathews had a nail-chewing Marine on his line and didn't have a clue how to deal with it.
Give 'em hell, Zell.
"Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va.
Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio."
*****
A despicable act! If the father didn't have to take care of his children, I believe I read, he said there would have been some knuckle sanwiches handed out to the punk who ripped the sign!
bump
Matthews had a nail-chewing Marine on his line and didn't have a clue how to deal with it. -- Yep, Matthews froze up immediately.
Give 'em hell, Zell. -- Ditto.
****
I'll tell you one thing for sure, if the FoxNews people were smart they would reserve a couple of hours on consecutive Saturday nights for Zell and Matthews to sit face to face and "discuss things"!
I don't know if you saw "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid", but there's a scene in that movie I love and will never forget that fits here:
"Guns or knives, Butch, guns or knives?"
Heck, I'd bet on an 80ish Marine over a 300ish pound fat journalist any day of the week.
Miller probably is still having nightmares of running into Zell on some New york street at night....
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