Rebutting Zell's List

[RichardRay]

In his insane tirade at the R's convention Zell Miller listed of all the weapons systems he claimed Kerry voted against, ending with his bizzare 'spitball' claim.

Has anyone seen the list of the actual pieces of legislation Zell was talking about? Which bills in which years? I'd like to see that so I can do the work (if it hasn't been done already) to discover just what the bills covered and who voted which way on each of them for what reasons. If Zell just tossed it all into a bag and shook then it will be even harder to counter factually, but might be easier to discount as hyperbole.

My working hypothesis is that, if I found each piece of legislation, I'd find a lot of pork, a lot of unrelated riders and a lot of current Republicans voting right along with him, but I'd like to see the list and do the research to make certain of that.

NOT, mind you, that I think there is any reason to 'defend' against a vote against 'Star Wars' (SDI); it was and remains the most ridiculous piece of defense thinking in history.

Richard Ray - Jackson Hole, WY

[NMDemDist2]

1. it was pretty much one bill that Cheney (as SoD) was against n/t

[liveoaktx]

3. Slate on this subject

http://slate.com/id/2106119/

[gbwarming]

2. See snopes for a good debunking

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/weapons.asp
<snip>
Origins: Numerous variants of this message claiming that Senator John Kerry of Masschusetts "voted to kill every military appropriation for the development and deployment of every weapons systems since 1988" have been circulating since at least February 2004. The message's implication — that Senator Kerry distinctly and specifically voted to kill upwards of a dozen different weapons systems — is inaccurate and grossly misleading, however.

A 22 February 2004 Republican National Committee (RNC) research briefing includes the list of weapons systems found in this message and citations that purportedly support the claim that Senator Kerry voted to kill each one. But all the citations stem from votes on three Congressional bills, none of which were about a specific weapons system or group of weapons systems.

The three votes cited — regarding S. 3189 (1990), H.R. 5803 (1990), and H.R. 2126 (1995) — were bills covering fiscal year Department of Defense appropriations, all of which Senator Kerry voted against. (Two of those three votes were not technically on defense appropriations per se, but on House-Senate conference committee reports for defense appropriations bills.) As the text of a typical defense appropriations bill shows, such bills cover the entire governmental expenditures for defense in a given fiscal year and encompass thousands of items totalling hundreds of billions of dollars — including everything from the cost of developing, testing, purchasing, and maintaining weapons and other equipment to personnel expenses (salaries, medical benefits, tuition assistance, reenlistment bonuses), medical research, hazardous waste cleanup, facilities maintenance, and a whole host of other disbursements. Members of Congress ultimately vote "yea" or "nay" on an entire appropriations bill; they don't pick and choose to approve some items and reject others.
(more)

[Career Prole]

4. Another one on Slate...

"John Kerry's Defense Defense
Setting his voting record straight."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2096127

[oasis]

5. It's always good to have the facts at hand even though only the fervent

Bush Kool-aid crowd were impressed by Zig Zag Zell's histrionics.