Newps wrote:

If Zell Miller is what democrats used to be I can
see why they had the House for 40 years.

I moved out of Georgia in '81, but I liked Miller a lot back then.

The Democrats used to be as pretty diverse bunch -- a Southern Democrat was very like
a Northern Republican until a bit after the campaign finance reform acts in the late
'70s. After the courts got through interpreting those, the only place candidates
could get large amounts of money was from the national party. Both parties used that
lever to establish national planks. The Dems really made their members toe the line
in this regard during the late 80s and 90s -- in particular, this led to many changes
in the attitudes about gun control amongst Democratic party members.

I heard today on NPR that the Republicans just put a statement in their platform to
the extent that it's ok for party members to diverge from the party line if they
want. Of course, the issue that was discussed on the air was abortion, but the
language in the platform document isn't that specific.

George Patterson
If you want to know God's opinion of money, just look at the people
he gives it to.