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Thu. Apr 29, 2004

More Hell from Zell

Senator Zell Miller seems determined to go out in a blaze of glory. He announced earlier that he wouldn’t be seeking reelection to the Senate, and ever since, he’s been on the warpath. Over the past six months or more, he’s essentially waged an ongoing battle against the Democratic National Party, and in doing so has thoroughly ticked off thousands of Georgia Democrats who helped re-elect him to a legislative body he now wants to restructure.

And with his latest, he again makes me ask a question I’ve pondered before: what did they do to Zell up there in DC?

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution (where they now require your first born male child in order to register and read their articles online)

Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., introduced legislation Wednesday that would repeal the 17th Amendment and return to the era when U.S. senators were chosen by state legislatures rather than by statewide votes.

“The U.S. Senate has become just one big, bad, ongoing joke, held hostage by special interests and so impotent an 18-wheeler truck loaded with Viagra would do no good,” said Miller in a floor speech.

Ratification of the 17th Amendment “was a victory for special interest tyranny and a blow to the power of state governments that would cripple them forever,” said Miller, who has announced he will retire from the Senate when his term ends in January.

AJC.com: “Miller measure targets Senate”

And how did the “crippled” leaders of Georgia’s State Legislature react to this potential turn of fate? “‘This is a late April Fool’s joke, right?’ asked State Rep. Tom Bordeaux, D-Savannah.”

I’ve certainly spouted off about politicians who propose amending the Constitution to deal with every perceived “moral quandary” in this country, because the Constitution is not a pliable document you can bend to your every election-year whim. However, Zell is not proposing an amendment, he’s proposing that we strip the 17th Amendment, and return the Constitution to its original state regarding the election of US Senators. I’m far more willing to at least listen to such proposals, but…

Still, one has to wonder, why would he bring this up now? He’s an outcast among Democrats, and even his Republican peers in the Senate know he’s just a lame duck who currently serves their purposes well. What is truly underneath this?

“I’ve been around legislative bodies since 1960 and I understand that none of them operate like clockwork. But I started to ask myself, ‘Why is this place, this United States Senate, so dysfunctional?’ The major reason is that these special interests are so powerful and the reason they are so powerful is that there is no longer the checks and balances between state and federal government.”

“There are other things that make this place so dysfunctional. One is the live television in the Senate chamber and another is the hordes of professional staff around here who never have to worry about facing the electorate and who consider themselves smarter and more indispensable than the senators themselves.”

Ow, Big Clue there at the end, but let’s deal with “the issue” first: lobbyists and special interests dominate the Senate. I suppose the logic is that if you eliminate Senate election campaigns, and allow them to be selected by the state legislatures, you shut off the big campaign money that special interests donate to get “their guy” elected. But my opinion is that this special interest money is like a vast volume of water; it will find whatever cracks and crevasses exist, expand them, and settle back to its own level.

Except it will settle at the state level. Where Senators would then be “selected.” By the state legislatures. Who are still elected representatives, and thus, completely open to the same special interests US Senators currently are. It would simply shift the problem, from one legislative body to fifty.

So I don’t buy this proposal on the obvious grounds. I really think there’s something more here. Zell is a product of the infamous Georgia Good Ol’ Boy network, which has controlled politics in this state for many decades. It’s not an environment for shrinking violets or the thin skinned. He’s not only a product of it, he thrived in it, eventually becoming governor. He knows all about hard ball politics and special interests, because he worked in that environment for four decades, and eventually ruled it. When he left state office, he’d won every state-level office there was worth winning.

Then he got appointed to fill the seat of the late US Senator Paul Coverdell in 2000, and left that familiar state playground for the Big Leagues inside the DC Beltway. And I swear, I think something happened. I don’t know exactly what, but there’s clues in his statements over the past six months or so. Like when he talks about low level staffers who “consider themselves smarter and more indispensable than the senators themselves.”

I can’t help but wonder if Zell expected to be given the kind of respect he’d earned over four decades in Georgia politics, but once in DC he found that a freshman “replacement” Senator got the level of respect Zell once reserved for a rookie in the Georgia House.

Zell’s a fiery man. Always has been, even back when his fellow Democrats considered him “better behaved” than he is today. In fact, my favorite Zell moment is a fiery one. As governor, he was taking questions from a somewhat unruly press. While answering one question, another reporter cut him off to followup, and Zell’s eye lit up. He didn’t pause, his voice got louder and more Southern, and continued “EXCUSE me for TALKIN’ while you’re INTERRUPTIN’...” and continued answering the first question.

A fiery and effective yet minimally polite squelching of unacceptable behavior. I liked it a lot, and have used it myself since then. But it illustrates my point. Zell’s very Old School. Respect is earned, not given, and Zell likely feels he’s earned his due. But I think he found in DC, it meant little. In fact, I wonder if his fellow Dems or some of those “low level staffers” told him as much.

It’s not a word you’ll ever hear coming out of Zell’s mouth, but I think he got “dissed” by the Democratic establishment he encountered in the Senate, and it thoroughly pissed him off to be disrespected. I could be completely wrong, but I think that’s why he’s been so feisty on his way out.

Because I don’t think it’s the structure of the legislative body that’s the root of Zell’s ire. That would be a bi-partisan ire. Zell’s has been solely reserved for the Democrats. Perhaps the final indicator is when someone “puts their money where their mouth is,” and donates the maximum allowed to their preferred Presidential candidate, as Zell has.

But based on that, you also might ask, what did they do to Andrew Young to cause him to donate the maximum allowed to the Bush campaign?