President Carter's letter to Zell Miller

[UnityDem]

The text of a letter former President Carter sent to Zell Miller over the weekend
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_...

You seem to have forgotten that loyal Democrats elected you as mayor and as state senator. Loyal Democrats, including members of my family and me, elected you as lieutenant governor and as 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.

Everyone knows that you were chosen to speak at the Republican Convention because of your being a “Democrat,” and it’s quite possible that your rabid and mean-spirited speech damaged our party and paid the Republicans some transient dividends.

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.")

I, myself, never claimed to have been a war hero, but I 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 pacificist.

Zell, I have known you for forty-two 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 preemptive 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.
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* Copyright or Reprint Release in File - BRaBC04, Inc. *

[johncoby2]

1. Go Jimmy Go!

[Mr_Spock]

2. Bless you Jimmy Carter - very well said.

Zell has gone into the evil darkness.

[coloradodem2005]

3. Very nice.

Great letter. Thank you Mr. Carter.

[jukes]

4. excellent letter

from an admirable democrat.

i'm touched.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. What a magnificent letter!

I wish so much that I had seen it at the time. I spent about a week after the Republican Convention discussing Zell Miller's irresponsible and whacked-out remarks with my best friend. Jimmy Carter is also a hero to her, as he is to me, so I'll send this letter to ob her, even at this late date. Thanks for posting it. I don't know if it was posted elsewhere on DU, but if I had seen this, I would have nominated it for the home page. Jimmy Carter just continues to make us proud.:-)

[RubyDuby in GA]

6. The day that Zell Miller makes a single disparaging remark about

my beloved Jimmy Carter is the day *I* challenge him to a duel. It will make the Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton fiasco look like a walk in the park. You don't want to mess with my little Jimmy Carter Zell Miller....you just don't....trust me you crazy fool....don't do it.

[midlandsdawg]

7. One problem I see with it

Kudos to Carter, but I think he got one thing wrong, loyal democrats didn't elect Zell Miller as governor, they paid for it, but didn't do it, the state did. We lost, IMO the governorship because of the Atlanta problem, its the reason we are losing the state of GA. I moved to SC in June, so I hope you guys can fix it. The atlanta problem is that when you look at GA< you know the suburbs will go pub probably, the urban areas go dem, so you're left with the more rural areas and Macon/Augusta/Savannah, but the rural folks in the north and south vote in droves. They want a politician as governor who seems to represent them, for the first time, IMO we lost that with Barnes. For years, we won the governorship not only due to better candidates but the pubs seemed to always nominate an atlantan, then they switched and won, lucky for us, Taylor is coming to whip some ass! I noticed this mainly when I moved here, although Columbia is the capital, there are other cities that rival in in jobs and money, plus the area is regionalized so they somewhat band together. Florence isn't important in and of itself, but you throw in the entire Pee Dee region and it is. Georgia has one major player, atlanta, and rural folks want a taste of their own, they, IMO are the only swing vote area in mass in the entire state.

[CottonBear]

8. I am so proud of Jimmy Carter.

He is a veteran, a nuclear engineer, a true patriot, a real Christian and a good man. I think that history will look kindly upon him. He is doing so much good work all over the world. He is not afraid to speak his mind. We need more politicians like him. I voted for Zell for governor. I feel totally betrayed. Sam Nunn or Wyche Fowler or Max Cleland would have never acted in such a shameful manner. Zell is a disgrace.

[paineinthearse]

9. Very Presidential, unlike the current pResident. n/t

[Sparkle]

10. I think it's too late to try and persuade that raving lunatic.

He's been hit with the conservative stick.

[Snotcicles]

11. Has this been posted in General Discussion?

If not Please do.
Snotcicles from Michigan

[Rhiannon12866]

12. It probably was, at the time of the Republican Convention, but GD moves

So fast, that it's probably long sunk into the archives. I was so glad to find it in one of the slower-moving state forums, since I missed it, originally, and Jimmy Carter is a hero of mine. Needless to say, Zell Miller is not. Feel free to repost it, if you'd like. I agree, this is a must-read for everyone.:-)