Truth - Al Franken [43]
If Giuliani won the Mortality Salience Award, then the Palm d’Smear went to the Republican Convention’s keynote speaker, Georgia Senator Zell Miller. Miller, technically a Democrat, gave the lie to the stereotype that Democrats can’t be evil, vicious, lying fascists.
Looking like an enraged rooster pecking furiously away at the eyeball of the weakest chicken in the pecking order, Miller unrolled a litany of charges that, if taken together—and, crucially, if believed—backed up his contention that “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.”
It was tough talk. But it was especially startling to those of us who had been present at Georgia’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on March 1, 2001, when Miller introduced Kerry with a somewhat different tone: “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.”
And what was Zell’s good friend known for? In 2001, Zell Miller minced no words. “John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy, and protect the environment.”
In truth, I didn’t go to that dinner. I just went to Zell Miller’s website. Which, at the time of Zell’s barn burner at the Garden, still carried the text of Miller’s comments on that magical Georgia night.
But back to the Republican National Convention. Miller’s case wasn’t just hateful because it was full of hate. It was also hateful because it was full of lies. Lies about his good friend who had worked to strengthen our military.
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.
“Tried his best to shut down.” Hmm. “Facts.” Hmm.
The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40 percent of the bombs in the first six months of Enduring Freedom.
Ah, the B-1. Kerry had opposed the B-1? He’d tried his best to shut it down? Funny way of shutting it down: In 2002, Kerry voted $160 million for the B-1 Bomber Defense System Upgrade.
The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein’s command post in Iraq.
Kerry’s tireless efforts to shut down the B-2 bomber had involved voting for more than $16 billion in defense authorizations for it. If Kerry was really passionate about shutting down the B-2 bomber, he should have taken a page from Dick Cheney, who was far more successful at opposing it when he was secretary of defense. It was Cheney who canceled the B-2 bomber program after twenty planes had been built, even though the Air Force said it needed 132. But did Miller attack Cheney? No! And he was the next speaker! What a perfect opportunity, and Miller blew it.
In fact, if Miller had wanted to, he could have really ripped Cheney a new one. Check out this litany from Miller:
The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our nation’s capital and this very city after 9/11. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora. The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War.
Now compare that litany to this excerpt from the 1990 testimony before the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee by then–Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney:
This is just a list of some of the programs that I’ve recommended termination: the V-22 Osprey, the F-14D, the Army Helicopter Improvement Program, Phoenix missile, F-15E, the Apache helicopter, the M1 tank, et cetera. [“Et cetera” his.]
Was Dick Cheney trying to gut our military? No. The Cold War had ended, and there was this thing called the “peace dividend.” Cheney was just doing what Zell Miller would have done if he had been defense secretary, which is to choose which weapons systems would