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 ...
While I find the "reality show" genre to be pretty well overdone, I'd watch this if it was just a one-show deal.
This would make a good pay-per-view. It'd get pretty lame if they tried to drag it out for six or so shows, though. So, they might have to bring the shooting distance down to, oh, say 10 paces, just to increase the likelihood of a one-shot kill.
Otherwise, we get six more weeks of watching either Zell or Chris struggling to overcome a sucking chest wound. And that's where ya'd lose a lot of the audience, in my humble opinion. That sort of drama would just be sort of anti-climactic. One show would be good, though.
Not true, Zell Miller was a Marine and all Marines are riflemen. Matthews is probablly an anti-gun nut, so he'd still be trying to take the safety off and it would be over.
Birthdate: 02/24/32
Birthplace: Young Harris, GA
Home City: Young Harris, GA
Religion: Methodist
*****
I'd put my money on the wiry and rugged,"nail-chewing", Southern, country Marine too -- with pistols or otherwise!
Matthews was just the last straw on Zell's back.
Yes, he was hot before Matthews threw gasoline on the fire. It was great entertainment, and Zell is one heck of a guy.
I just want to see the extremely attractive, intelligently correct, and intense Michelle Malkin throw a custard pie in his spitting face for the despicable way he treated her a few months ago.
50 paces with a rifle is one thing, but I was thinking more along the lines of a pair of these:
Matthews is probablly an anti-gun nut, so he'd still be trying to take the safety off and it would be over.
Oh, Chrissy Mathews would probably shoot his eye out looking down the barrel to see if it was loaded...
You are right, of course, about the rifle at 50 paces. I was trying to say that Mr. Miller probably could handle a weapon easily and Chris Matthews probably wouldn't; I was inarticulate.
That is a handsome brace of pistols, are they yours?
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.