"I can't wait to hear the spin that will be spewed trying to defend against the long list of FACTS Miller used against Kerry."
Well, I just read over Zell's speech, and I have a few problems:
-- "It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag who gives that protester the freedom he abuses to burn that flag."
This is one thing I love to hear: people who attack flag-burning by evoking the memory of the troops who died for the right to do such a thing. "Our brave soldiers fought and died for your right to burn that flag, and I'll be
damned if you're going to disgrace their memory by exercising it!"
-- "And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators."
-- "No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home."
Really, Mr. Miller? You came throw your support to George Bush, but you say that no one should even dare think about being the Commander-in-Chief if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators rather than occupiers?
Well, Zell, don't attack Kerry over that. Tell it to the Chief:
"...[the Iraqi people] were happy -- they're not happy
they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either." - George W. Bush, White House Press Conference, April 13, 2004
(
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040413-20.html - and before we get into a semantics quibble over it, to be occupied requires occupiers to do the occupying - guess who Bush was referring to as the occupiers? The American people in Iraq... The soldiers!)
Ladies and gentlemen, even one of Bush's strongest supporters thinks Bush shouldn't dare to even think about being the Commander-in-Chief.
--"Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security. But Americans need to know the facts."
[Zell then proceeds to give a list of said weapons systems, a list that includes the B-1 Bomber, the B-2 Bomber, the F-14A Tomcats, the F-14D, the Apache helicopter, the F-15 Eagles, and a few others]
But there's something fishy about this little factoid - Kerry has never voted for or against these weapons, because they never came up for a vote.
That's right - neither John Kerry nor any other senator has ever tried to "shut down" these weapon systems.
What Miller is referring to are two
defense appropriations bills that Kerry voted against. What Zell has done is plucked some weapons systems out of that bill and said that Kerry was voting to "shut them down." By the same logic, Zell could've said that Kerry voted to "shut down" the entire military, but that would've made even the truth-blind Republican idealogues wonder if he was being honest.
So are these some of those "facts" you were talking about?
One more, and I think this one really sums Zell Miller up quite well:
-- "For more than twenty years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak, and more wobbly than any other national figure."
Really, Zell? For twenty years he has been more wrong, weak, and wobbly than any other national figure? Is that why, introducing him at a dinner of the Democratic Party of Georgia three years ago (which by my calculation, is less than twenty years meaning he was still "weak," "wrong," and "wobbly" at ths time), you had this to say about him:
"My job tonight is an easy one: to present to you one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders – and a good friend."
(
http://miller.senate.gov/speeches/030101jjdinner.htm)
So which is it, Zell? Is Kerry "weak" and "wobbly," or "one of this party's greatest leaders"? Me thinketh the GOP hath buyeth Mr. Miller off!
Regardless, you can see why Zell Miller said of Bush, "... I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning."
Apparently, Zell likes it when people take 3 years to flip-flop, instead of one day.