Zell Miller's Snake Analogy

private e-mail | 12 March 2003 | unknown

[An.American.Expatriate]

Don't know if you are familiar with the past governor of Georgia. Miller, who is now Georgia's junior senator in Washington or not. By the way -- he is a democrat. I thought this article in the paper was very apropos.

Zell Miller knows how to boil things down to the basics. That's what Georgia's junior senator did when he explained why it's important that Saddam Hussein be defanged. But he's also a good storyteller.

Here's the text of Mr. Miller's remarks, made on the Senate floor about the need to help President Bush deal with Iraq. We couldn't say it any better.

"Mr. President, I have signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Iraq resolution, and I'd like to tell you a story about why I think it is the right path to take:

A few weeks ago, we were doing some work on my back porch back home, tearing out a section of old stacked rocks, when all of a sudden I uncovered a nest of copperhead snakes. Now, I'm not one to get alarmed at snakes. I know they perform some useful functions, like eating rats. And when I was a young lad, I kept snakes as pets.

I had an indigo snake, a bull snake, a corn snake and many others. I must have had a dozen king snakes at one time or another. They make great pets and you only had to feed them a mouse every 30 days.

I read all the books by Raymond C. Ditmars, who was the foremost herpetologist of his day. That's an expert on snakes. For a while, I wanted to be a herpetologist, but the pull of being a big-league shortstop outran that childhood dream.

I reminisce this way to explain that snakes don't scare me like they do some people. And I guess the reason is that I know the difference between those that are harmless and those that will kill you. In fact, I bet I may be the only senator in this body who can look at the last three inches of a snake's tail and tell you whether it's poisonous or not. I can also tell the sex of a snake, but that's another story.

A copperhead will kill you. It could kill one of my dogs. It could kill one of my grandchildren. It could kill any of my four great grandchildren. They play all the time where I found these killers. And you know, when I discovered these copperheads, I didn't call my wife Shirley and ask her advice, like I do on most things. I didn't yell for help from my neighbors or take it to the city council.

I just took a hoe and knocked them in the head and killed them.

Dead as a doorknob.

I guess you could call it a unilateral action. Or pre-emptive or even bellicose and reactive. I took their poisonous heads off because they were a threat to me.

And they were a threat to my home and my family.

They were a threat to all I hold dear.

And isn't that what this is all about?"

[An.American.Expatriate]

Can't verify accuracy. Got this in my mail.....

[joebellis]

Consider it verified. From the Zell Miller senate web site. http://miller.senate.gov/speeches/10-03-02-Iraq-snakes-Floor-speech.html

[Tamzee]

Well, for years my family teased by calling me "Mommy Snake-Killer" because I did the same thing. It was a group of snakes in the bush next to my toddlers' swingset, I grabbed a handy baseball bat.

Saddam sure looks like a snake to me and we know he kills children.

[justshutupandtakeit]

What in Hell is this guy doing in the RAT party? He is better than many/most Republicans.

[Mamzelle]

Sounds like a Georgian, though it's hard for me to trust any Dem who's had dealings with the Trial Lawyer lobby. I suppose that's where he came by his affection for snakes. Copperheads are the chief snake threat in his part of the country...only copperheads aren't as bad as other poisonous snakes. They're pretty, not aggressive unless stepped on or cornered, easy to identify, though sometimes confused with common and harmless watersnakes. Copperheads don't swim unless they absolutely have to, and watersnakes are, well, watersnakes. The copperhead's cousin is the nasty, ugly, aggressive, highly poisonous Cottonmouth is the worst. Luckily not in my neck of the woods.

[jigsaw]

Apocryphal or not, it's an apropos analogy.
And how appropriate a potential herpetologist joined the Democratic party. I just wish he'd do now what he did to the other snakes he found.

[Sinner6]

God I will miss Zell. Too bad he is retiring.

[truthkeeper]

Bravo. What a man.

[Republican Wildcat]

Appears accurate other than the fact that Miller is the senior Senator from Georgia, not the junior Senator.

[Republican Wildcat]

Well, if he said that back in 2002, then he was the junior Senator at the time, before Cleland left office after being defeated by Chambliss.

[Momto2]

Thanks for posting this - I also got this in my e-mail. It is an amazing thing..... when I get e-mails about issues (Estrada nomination, parital birth abortion, Iraq) that I have TWO senators who will be voting the RIGHT WAY!!!! So instead of the usual calls, e-mails, etc. I only need send a Thank You Note!!!! What a blessing!!

[ken5050]

You know, I still wouldn't be surprised if Zell decides to cross the aisle and swith to the GOP before he retires....

[AMNZ]

Are you sure this guy is a DemocRAT?!!
He's making sense, can't be a Rat.

[IncPen]

Snake killing ping

[DeuceTraveler]

"Are you sure this guy is a DemocRAT?!!
He's making sense, can't be a Rat."


He's an old style Truman-like democrat.

[pilgrim]

Re:  Snakes 

From:  Email Friend

 

Blind Snake and Bunny

 

Once upon a time (allegedly) in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. By a surprising coincidence, both were blind from birth. 

One day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering through the forest, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down. This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit.

"Oh, my," said the bunny, "I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been blind since birth, so, I can't see where I'm going.  In fact, since I'm also an orphan, I don't even know what I am." 

"It's quite OK,"  replied the snake. "Actually, my story is much the same as yours. I, too, have been blind since birth, and also never knew my mother.  Tell you what, maybe I could slither all over you, and work out what you are, so at least you'll have that going for you." 

"Oh, that would be wonderful" replied the bunny. So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, "Well, you're covered with soft fur; you have really long ears; your nose twitches; and you have a soft cottony tail. I'd say that you must be a bunny rabbit."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you," cried the bunny, in obvious excitement. The bunny suggested to the snake, "Maybe I could feel you all over with my paw, and help you the same way that you've helped me."

So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked, "Well, you're smooth and slippery, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls.  I'd say you must be French."

[muir_redwoods]

Perfect. Now I've got someone to point to proudly when people call me partisan and suggest that I hate all Democrats.

I'd like to trade some of my Connecticut Republicans for some of those Georgia Democrats.

[Lancey Howard]

Bump.
I have noticed for at least two years that Zell seems uncomfortable with the national Democrat Party. He's a loyal man and will likely stick with his party to the end, but like Sam Nunn and some other Democrats with decency and honor, I think he is appalled at the Patrick Leahy-Hillary Clinton-Barbara Boxer-Dick Durbin-Harry Reid wing of his party. I think he wants nothing to do with those disgusting scumbags.

[friendly]

Old man Miller is extremely eloquent and likable.

However, as a lawyer industry advocate, he is highly flawed and does not belong with Republicans or decent people. Sorry, Miller-o-philes. Better that he end his days with his traitorous, disgusting, evil democrats.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump