Zell's Problem
Zell Miller's "keynote" speech in NY tonight will obviously get a lot of attention. The DLC's opinion on Zell's apostasy is pretty clear, and can be found here and here.
But I'm interested, from a purely mechanical point of view, in seeing how Miller and his new GOP handlers deal with a certain logical problem about his speech. At some point, probably months ago, it dawned on BC04 operatives that Bush would be nominated in the same building where their new buddy Zell Miller gave the Democratic keynote address back in 1992. Hey, somebody said, wouldn't it be cool to get Zell to keynote our convention?
The problem, of course, is that Zell's return engagement in the Garden raises a pretty obvious question about what, exactly, happened between '92 and now to convert him from a Bush-bashing partisan Democrat to a Kerry-bashing supporter of Bush the Younger. And as I assume at least someone in the media will remind viewers tonight (maybe CNN's Paul Begala, who ghosted much of the '92 speech), Miller did everything short of kicking Millie the First Dog to promote the eviction of W.'s dad from the White House back then.
Miller could obviously tell delegates he was wrong then, and right (not to mention Right) today. But at a time when much of the Convention is devoted to branding John Kerry as a flip-flopper, it probably won't be helpful if the man once mocked by Georgia Republicans as "Zig-Zag Zell" suggests it's possible to change your mind about anything.
Moreover, Miller has repeatedly rejected the apology route up until now. In his recent book, which many of his new right-wing friends probably haven't actually read, he doesn't for a moment apologize for supporting Clinton in '92 or even in '96. He suggests, instead, that the Democratic Party lurched off in a leftwards direction some time around 1998--roughly the same time that Miller moved to Washington and lost his bearings.
Call it a psychic flash, but I somehow don't think Republican delegates are quite ready to applaud a speech that says: "If you liked Bill Clinton, you ought to love George W. Bush."
My guess is that Miller will allude to his '92 gig with a brief joke, and then spend the rest of his time churning out every anti-Kerry talking point he can download from the BC04 web page, nestled in a lot of faux-populist "humor" about the opposition of Democrats to the ownership of pickup trucks. But his speech does present a problem, and I hope the punditocracy gets over its dull-witted stupor in covering this Convention just enough to call him on it.
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