corrente

These two stories have something to do with each other. Trust me.

First, from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

NEW DELHI (AP)--The office of the Dalai Lama said Friday that an animal rights group misrepresented the nature of a request by the spiritual leader that fast-food chain KFC not open an outlet in his homeland, Tibet.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, released a document Thursday from the Dalai Lama asking that the Louisville, Ky.-based restaurant chain "abandon its plan to open restaurants in Tibet."

But the Dalai Lama's heading on the document, "APPEAL," was changed to "Dear Mr. Novak"--a reference to David Novak, chief executive of KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands Inc. PETA then issued a statement saying the Dalai Lama had "dispatched a letter" to the company.

"We strongly object to your changing the nature of the appeal without seeking our approval," the Dalai Lama's secretary, Tenzin Geyche Tethong, said in a letter faxed Friday to Ingrid Newkirk of PETA in Norfolk, Va.

And then we have this, also from the AJC

WASHINGTON — Sen. Zell Miller, the veteran Georgia politician who outraged fellow Democrats by endorsing President Bush's re-election, has been asked to speak at the Republican National Convention, an official familiar with the negotiations said Friday.

A second Republican said negotiations with Miller have been going on for some time. That Republican, who is close to the party leadership, said that Bush's top advisers are eager to have Miller appear because they see him as an effective TV presence whose lifelong affiliation with the Democratic Party could help burnish Bush's credentials with moderate and independent voters.

Georgia Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Kahn mocked Miller's appearance.

"Maybe I'll switch to the Republican Party so I can speak at the Democratic Convention and bash Bush," Kahn said. "It would be about as newsworthy."

Despite his support for Bush and his ferocious criticism of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Miller has refused to drop out of the Democratic Party. And party officials said Friday there was no way to simply kick the former two-term governor out.

So our message here is that it is wrong to "fly false colors," as they used to say back in the Horatio Hornblower days. My old gray cat has more Democratic principles in her left hind paw than Ding Dong Zell has in his whole body any more.

No, I don't advocate "kicking him out of the party"; aside from Mr. Kahn's no doubt wrathful observation that the rules don't allow it, the fact that Zell has a "D" after his Senatorial desk nameplate may, come next January, make Tom Daschle the Senate Majority Leader he should be.

But I don't have to like him or his neocon-theocon-DINO ways. A Democrat In Name Only deserves all the kicking around we can give him, until he repents and returns to the path of righeousness. Or as somebody once said, "We strongly object to your changing the nature of the appeal without seeking our approval."

UPDATE: Esteemed Commentors Tinfoil Hat Boy and Vadranor point out that Zig-Zag Zell (as john notes he is locally known) is in fact not running for reelection and so will not be a factor in the Senate come January. This renders my objections above moot so if anybody wants to go all Abu Ghraib on his ass it's fine with me.