QandO

September 08, 2004

Carter attacks Zell Miller in letter
Posted by McQ

Awaiting us today, in the Atlanta Journal Constitution was a blast of Zell Miller in letter form written by none other that GA's "favorite son", Jimmy Carter. It seems the mild-mannered Carter was none to thrilled with Miller's performance nor his characterization of Carter's presidency.

To Sen. Zell Miller:

You seem to have forgotten that loyal Democrats elected you as mayor [of Young Harris] and as state senator. Loyal Democrats, including members of my family and me, elected you as state senator, lieutenant governor and governor. It was a loyal Democrat, Lester Maddox, who assigned you to high positions in the state government when you were out of office. It was a loyal Democrat, Roy Barnes, who appointed you as U.S. senator when you were out of office. By your historically unprecedented disloyalty, you have betrayed our trust.

Great Georgia Democrats who served in the past, including Walter George, Richard Russell, Herman Talmadge and Sam Nunn, disagreed strongly with the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and me, but they remained loyal to the party in which they gained their public office. Other Democrats, because of philosophical differences or the race issue, like Bo Callaway and Strom Thurmond, at least had the decency to become Republicans.

Yup, those guys had the "decency" to become Republicans. Dissent, it appears, is ok if you're a Democrat speaking out against Republicans, but its absolutely verboten if you speak out against your own party. When you do that it is a "betrayal". I wonder, given the principle here, what Jimmy Carter would consider dissent as concerns the war in Iraq?

Betrayal?

Everyone knows that you were chosen to speak at the Republican National Convention because of your being a "Democrat," and it's quite possible that your rabid speech damaged our party and paid the GOP some transient dividends.

Note the scare quotes. Its just inconceivable to Carter, I guess, that Miller might actually have strong beliefs concerning the direction the Democrats have been going. He's only been voicing them for 4 years and has even written a book about it. The Democrat response? Ignore it. Now, when called to task in a venue which might provide the Republicans with 'some transient dividends', Carter is outraged. Outraged I tell you.

But when Zell was trying to get his point across to the Dems prior the the convention, he was simply ignored.

Then Jimmy falls into the Democrat canards which they so cherish, even though the suckers have been stomped flat and have absolutely no truth to them.

Perhaps more troublesome of all is seeing you adopt an established and very effective Republican campaign technique of destroying the character of opponents by wild and false allegations. The Bush campaign's personal attacks on the character of John McCain in South Carolina in 2000 was a vivid example. The claim that war hero Max Cleland was a disloyal American and an ally of Osama bin Laden should have given you pause, but you have joined in this ploy by your bizarre claims that another war hero, John Kerry, would not defend the security of our nation except with spitballs. (This is the same man whom you described previously as "one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders --- and a good friend.")

Well gee Jimmy, one supposes you once called Miller "a good friend". I imagine if I scrape around long enough the quote can be found. What has that to do with his record? Good friends can also end up on the wrong side of ideology. It appears that Carter believes that their supposed friendship requires blind loyalty to the party, doesn't it?

As ususal, the characterization of Kerry's RECORD is compared with an attack on his patriotism. God that's getting old.

I, myself, served in the Navy from 1942 to 1953, and, as president, greatly strengthened our military forces and protected our nation and its interests in every way. I don't believe this warrants your referring to me as a pacifist.

I did get a laugh out of this paragraph. Russia invades Afghanistan and war hawk Carter, in a bold move, cancels our participation in the Olympics. Jimmy apparently remembers his term a lot differently than most of us who had to suffer through it.

Zell, I have known you for 42 years and have, in the past, respected you as a trustworthy political leader and a personal friend. But now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral pre-emptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause. These are not the characteristics of great Democrats whose legacy you and I have inherited.

Chosen the "rich over the poor", gag.

"[U]nilateral pre-emptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace..." What is this, liberal canard 5 or 6? Let's ask Britian and Australia, maybe they're keeping count. Oh, and don't call Jimmy a pacifist, ok?

"...lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause."

Characterizing Kerry's record specifically and the Democrat record generally is now "lies and obfuscation", and questioning the direction of his party is "character assassination". Of course Jimmy's letter is all of the above, but lets pretend not to notice, OK?

Instead of confronting what Miller has been trying to get across for years, Carter chooses to chastise Miller, never once understanding that the Democrats he references in his second paragraph would have been more likely to agree with Miller than Carter.

Nothing to see here, move along please, move along.

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