Former Congressman Ben Jones had it right when he said last month, “I think that the devil has got into Zell Miller, and he needs an exorcist.” Zell “Zig Zag” Miller’s vicious keynote speech Wednesday night was so over the top and below the belt that it left even some of the coolest members of the so-called liberal punditocracy stunned.

“I’ve never heard such a speech…so wildly inaccurate, filled with wild distortions by the basketful…just over the top angry,” Time magazine’s Joe Klein told CNN’s Aaron Brown. The usually cool and crisp CNN analyst Bill Schneider seemed visibly shaken, even somewhat disheveled, as he described Miller’s speech “as angrier that Buchanan’s in ’92.” Chris Matthews seemed shocked after Miller exploded on his show and threatened him in an out-of-control screed. Jeff Greenfield almost pulsed with rage after listening to Miller’s scurrilous and slanderous attacks on Kerry’s character and credentials.

In a post-speech interview, Greenfield (and Judy Woodruff) pushed Miller to defend his serial distortions about Kerry’s Senate votes on defense appropriations. But there was no time to ascertain the truth–as is almost always the case on cable TV. At the close of his show, Aaron Brown asked Klein–in his signature, ‘aw shucks manner–“We all want our politics at a higher plane. Was the line crossed tonight? ” Klein shook his head, looked disgusted, and admitted he didn’t know how this latest round of Bush’s scummy politics of personal destruction by proxy would play in the country (and in those all important swing states.)

Here’s a modest proposal. How about giving over ten minutes on all cable shows, beginning tonight, to a “just the facts” segment. No shouting heads, no blustering anchors. Just bring on a representative from one of the non-partisan “truth squad” election monitoring groups like the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck.Org to ascertain the truth of the speeches and charges of the day. We have 60 days left until the election. Why not try to lift our politics out of the gutter which Bush’s character assassins have thrown us into?

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Cut Bush’s Time in Half

At a Labor Day Rally yesterday–rescheduled by New York’s unions to take advantage of all the Republicans in their city–the President of New York City’s Central Labor Council Brian McLaughlin got it right when, referring to the Bush Administration’s gutting of overtime protection, he said: “If George Bush can cut our time-and-a-half, then we should cut his time in half.”