Cheney & Miller #10
Reported by Marie Therese - September 3, 2004 -
During Big Story with John Gibson (9/2/04) there were three segments that covered the Zell Miller tirade and one that dealt with Dick Cheney's speech. At 5:12 PM EDT DNC Chairman, Terry McAuliffe, said that Zell Miller "did a lot of damage to the Republican Party. Whoever booked him oughta be fired today. This was an angry man and you saw it come out..."
McAuliffe continued: "This was their keynote speaker. We had Barack Obama who talked about optimism, how to be hopeful, what you can do to build yourself up and move forward with John Kerry's positive vision. This man went on television. He frightened people."
Gibson countered "He was an insider with an insider's point of view about John Kerry. Why isn't that a valuable thing?"
McAuliffe responds that Miller "is not an insider. Since he's been in the Senate he has not attended any of the Democratic Senate caucases. He's never been to a Democratic meeting. He's been helping Republicans from day one."
Later at 5:35 PM guest Haley Barbour, Republican Governor of Mississippi labelled the Democrats as "the left" in the following statement: "[Regarding] Zell Miller ...I've heard the left say 'Oh, he looks so angry.' Look Senator Miller's mad 'cause they've hijacked his party. Do you blame him for bein' mad at the Democratic Party?" He goes on the describe John Edwards as "a Vice-Presidential candidate more liberal than Hillary Clinton..."
Finally from 5:44 PM to 5:48 PM Gibson interviews Republican consultant Ed Rollins and Democratic strategist Bob Beckel. It was a good-old-boys reunion. Gibson cited the third night of the Convention as "a night of fire and brimstone." The two guests were very chummy. Beckel sounded so much like a Republican that Ed Rollins actually said at one point: "I commend Bob. He looks like a good Republican there. He's become rich and I look like the Democrat today." FINALLY, someone at FOX admitted what we News Hounds have known all along - the Democratic spokepeople on FOX are only marginal Democrats!
Beckel was complimentary towards Cheney saying that a focus group from Ohio that he worked with reacted favorably to Cheney's speech but were confused by Miller's anger and on Monday liked McCain's speech and were unsure who Giuliani was. Rollins mentioned that Bush needed to score an A-plus on his speech.
