Was Zell always a turncoat or is it a recent change?

Have to admit I don't know much about him or his record until he garnered press for his break from the Dems. Someone sent me a link to this speech he gave in 2001. . .

Introduction of Senator John Kerry

Democratic Party of Georgia's
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner

March 1, 2001


It is good to be back in Georgia and to be with you. I have been coming to these dinners since the 1950s, and have missed very few.

I'm proud to be Georgia's junior senator and I'm honored to serve with Max Cleland, who is as loved and respected as anyone in that body. One of our very highest priorities must be to make sure this man is re-elected in 2002 so he can continue to serve this state and nation.

I continue to be impressed with all that Governor Barnes and Lieutenant Governor Taylor and the Speaker and the General Assembly are getting done over at the Gold Dome. Georgia is fortunate to have this kind of leadership.

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.

He was once a lieutenant governor – but he didn't stay in that office 16 years, like someone else I know. It just took two years before the people of Massachusetts moved him into the United States Senate in 1984.

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its "Digital Dozen."

John was re-elected in 1990 and again in 1996 – when he defeated popular Republican Governor William Weld in the most closely watched Senate race in the country.

John is a graduate of Yale University and was a gunboat officer in the Navy. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three awards of the Purple Heart for combat duty in Vietnam. He later co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America.

He is married to Teresa Heinz and they have two daughters.

As many of you know, I have great affection – some might say an obsession – for my two Labrador retrievers, Gus and Woodrow. It turns out John is a fellow dog lover, too, and he better be. His German Shepherd, Kim, is about to have puppies. And I just want him to know … Gus and Woodrow had nothing to do with that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Senator John Kerry.

http://miller.senate.gov/speeches/030101jjdinner.htm?resub

Which is basically a democrat who still wants class discrimination. He and his ilk aren't progressives.

for his unpredictability.

Dell is a Democrat stuck back in the 60's. 1860's that is.

Did you ever notice how many papers in the South have Democrat in their name? These papers all got their start after the Civil War, and the point of the Democratic party was all about anti-Republicanism (of the Abraham Lincoln anti-slavery movement) and a call for states rights.

States rights was all about slavery then, and has been used for 150 years as a rallying call for various causes related to oppression of minorities. Now that all of the crackers have moved from the Democratic party to the Republican party, the Republicans are starting to evoke states rights arguments on the issue of gay marriage.

Zell is just an old time cracker that is 3 steps slow in realizing the Democratic party that he signed up for defected to the Republican party 40 years ago during the Civil Rights movement.

It manifests as a consuming desire for attention, no matter whether positive or negative. Sufferers will appear on national television and undergo the most degrading, humiliating sorts of scrutiny and/or confrontations, even to the point of engaging in on-stage fisticuffs.

Even years afterward, with the victims' personal relationships--and oftentimes their finances--in utter disarray, they will, when questioned as to why they underwent such public degradation, invariably reply:

"Hell, I got to be on TeeVee! Did y'all SEE me???"

:evilgrin:
dbt

while I was waiting in the flu shot line to get my dad's number, and she said the guy always was as weird as he is now. She was a retired nurse who had worked for a state hospital. She also said that he was not good for state employees in Georgia.

Cindy

Two things worthy of note about Zell not mentioned yet:

1) for all his whining about Democrats not supporting the Warren Terra and Warren Eye-Rack, this lying sack of crap never said "boo" to support a hawkish Democrat running for the Presidency who shared those views and then some--Joseph Lieberman. If Zell was the bad-ass renegage he claims to be, he would've stuck by Joe's side, campaigned with him to the end. And THEN, and only then, would his support of Chimpy have made ideological sense. Instead, Zell bailed while there were still 9 people running for the Democratic nomination, squealing all the way.

Golly, wonder why: was it Joe's Jewishness, or his having hailed from the libruhl, evil Northeast, that kept Zell away? Prolly a mixture a' both.

2) A much smaller thing, but worthy of mention--when Gov., Zell backed a big book-buying campaign for libraries. I don't recall the specifics (I didn't live in GA, yet) but every one of the books being purchased with state money at the time included a prominent sticker on the inside front cover proclaiming the glories of Zell. (Ok, it's not quite that blatent, but he gets a BIG plug for himself there.) These stickers are still there on many of the books my kid checks out of the library to this day. I want to spit on them (but think instead of my fellow citizens).

I always wonder how many more books could have been purchased if they'd skipped the process of printing (and applying) those stupid promotional stickers.

Early on in his political career, Zell know that it was the end of the line for old-style southern segregationists. Maddox represented the era's swan song, and even George Wallace had become inclusive. So in order to be successful in competing for black and white progressive votes, it was necessary to run as a moderate -- despite what one's true political convictions might have been. With success at the polls, this pragmatic approach becomes institutionalized as coalitions are forged and policies are enacted. When a fellow moderate southern governor runs for President, it's only natural that he gets Zell's wholehearted support. All along, I sense that Zell has had a little voice in the back of his mind saying; "This is not the real you. Some day you will break free and become the Lester Maddox you've always wanted to be". The move to the Senate was the catalyst. He was no longer bound by his gubernatorial chains and the time for "reinvention" was at hand. Ideologically, Zell suddenly moved from the center to the right of most Republicans in the Senate. From there it was but a short step to lament that "his party had left him", "all patriotic Democrats should vote for Republicans", etc. etc. The venomous anger expressed during his GOP keynote speech was merely bottled up rage that had built up over the years being released. Zell was finally allowing himself to become Zell.

Many take up what ever that husband is into . It is like they become a new person and the old things they did is gone from their lives. It is like they had no base to start with. He seems like that type of person. Men , I feel, do not do it as much as women or I just may not have seen so many..

The north didn't have the plantations and farming the southern states had,climate had maybe more to do with slavery than we remember.I am a yankee in the sence that i was born and raised in the north east,i had as little to do with that decission as someone born in the south.Rasicm sucks everywhere on this planet and nobody has a pattent on it.Zell is a piece of shit if he is from Ant Artica.It is'nt blue states and red states if we want it to be the united states It's a game we play,Bush is not aTexan,that is part of the bullshit we have to deal with.

I think he really believes he is a voice for the average joe. And, perhaps to some extent he is.

I met him at an awards ceremony at my sister's school about 15 years ago. I was a teacher then and he told us his mother was an art (?) teacher and how much he believed in public schools. I think he was being fairly genuine at the time.

The repugs would attack him in commercials and call him "zig-zag Zell". Then during this campaign the repugs were all marching him around.