CORRUPTION ISN'T JUST FOR REPUBLICANS-- RIGHT-WING ASSHOLES OF BOTH PARTIES DO IT

Are there still right-wing assholes in the Democratic Party. Bet your life. Where you wanna look? Well, how far right you want? I mean crooked pols like Joe Lieberman and Joe Biden are not Nazis but they are certainly right of center most of the time; both are TOTAL corporate whores, 100% in the pockets of the major corporations who fund their miserable Beltway careers. But when I was growing up, if you wanted to find really right-wing Democratic pols, you just had to look South. I mean Strom Thurmond was a Democrat at one time. And in the time of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies we were always hearing about "powerful Southern Democratic committee chairmen" who could hold up progressive legislation for decades. It was the same kind of garbage representing states like Mississippi and Alabama then, except now they just call them Republican right wing maniacs instead of Democratic right wing maniacs. And one thing about the Right, they ALWAYS think they have the right to help themselves to whatever they can grab.

So with all the horror stories about how "Duke" Cunningham has been selling no bid contracts and presidential pardons and how the ENTIRE Republican state regime of Ohio was stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Workmens Compensation Fund and how Tom DeLay is selling legislation to every corporation that would pony up some dough, let's not forget that corruption is non-partisan. In fact it has recently come to light that a prominent ex-Governor and ex-Senator who was elected as a Democrat and who always tries to claim he is still a Democrat (even though he disagrees with the Democratic Party on every single issue of importance) has been not just a far Right loon, but also a crook. Who? Who? Who? Do you recall the "Democrat" Bush hired to make a speech for him at the 2004 Nuremberg Rally they called the Republican National Convention? The one that looked like he was gonna get in a fist fight or die of a heart attack at any moment. Yes, Zell Miller of Georgia. What a disgrace!

It has now been disclosed by local Atlanta television station WSB-TV that Miller was stealing on his way out of the state house back in 1999. At the time he pocketed over $60,000 in taxpayer funds earmarked for entertainment and other expenses at the Governor's Mansion. No other governor has ever stolen this fund before. And the crook also demanded another $20,000 for "unused leave," also a first (to which he was clearly not entitled).

I doubt anyone who reads this blog has bothered with any of Miller's hate-filled books, "Corps Values," "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" and "A Deficit of Decency,"
but the latest one, "A Deficit of Decency," has an interesting look into Miller's heart of darkness.
"'Is it decent?' is the right question. It's one all of us know and can answer, law degree or not. Is it decent? demands not wordy responses or over-educated legal beagles to interpret it, but simple truth, which doesn't need many words and doesn't lean into the technical."

How does that high moral stance jar with Zell Miller's actions? Although "no comment" is all he'll say to TV cameras, his lawyer did explain that ole Zell was TECHNICALLY eligible to take the mansion money because no one told him not to. "When I retired from state government, I received only what I was advised was legal, ethical and traditional," he said through his attorney, although
EVERY OTHER living ex-governor of Georgia-- from both parties-- from Jimmy Carter to Sonny Perdue, have gone on record to say that they did not consider the mansion money theirs-- and that they would not have taken it. The money was meant for use at the mansion, not for lining the occupants' pockets was the unanimous opinion of all the ex-governors. As for stealing the "unused leave" money, Miller-- who served as a constitutional officer from 1975 to 1999-- said he was unaware of the rules barring the state's highest elected officials from cashing out their leave. He paid the money back - six years later - when the media started asking questions. IS IT DECENT? IS ZELL MILLER DECENT? HAS ZELL MILLER EVER BEEN DECENT?