Zell Miller Explains Feud with Chris Matthews
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James Joyner | Tuesday, April 26, 2005 |
Zell Miller illuminates his feud with Chris Matthews
Former Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) had a beef with âHardballâ host Chris Matthews before he ever appeared on the show immediately after his fiery speech at the Republican National Convention last year.
The famously disloyal Democrat reveals in his new book, A Deficit of Decency, that before telling Matthews he wished he could challenge him to a duel, he had long âdetestedâ Matthewsâs âknow-it-all attitude and his bullying way of interviewing.â And earlier that evening, Matthewsâs fellow MSNBC pundit Ron Reagan called Miller âkind of weird,â while Matthews himself had referred to Miller as an âold-time seggy,â meaning segregationist â a characterization Miller vehemently disputes.
And one that’s completely unfounded, too, given Miller’s huge support among Georgia’s black voters.
If that speech was successful, it was a failure in one regard: Miller says he attempts to be âconversationalâ in television speeches, as if heâs talking to his granddaughter. âBut Iâve never been able to do it,â he writes. âSo Marine recruit Miller marched out onto that stage, stood at attention, and delivered for the drill instructor in my head who bellows, âSpeak up, private, I canât hear you.ââ
Conversational, it wasn’t. Indeed, I was quite worried that it would be perceived like Pat Buchanan’s 1992 stemwinder. Fortunately, his stern delivery was mostly taken as a grandfather’s righteous indignation rather than an extremist’s lunancy.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Above, you dismiss the MP defector as "So, this is some disgruntled old coot who's not even going to be in Parliament."
Zell Miller is "some disgruntled old coot who's not even going to be in Senate. "
Ron Reagan called someone 'kind of weird'!?!?
Phil: Not sure there's much connection. The UK has a parliamentary system, so party unity is the bedrock of the system. Whether Zell Miller was going to run for re-election really had nothing to do with Bush's ability to govern.
I doubt, James, that Zell Miller had any impact on the election at all. Disgruntled old coots seldom do. Just a side show.
Admittedly, Bush didn't need Zell's help in Georgia.
Or Texas, or Virginia, or Ohio...
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