Zell Miller

Zell Bryan Miller (born February 24, 1932) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. A Democrat he served as Governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999 and was a United States Senator from 2000 to 2005. In the last years of his career, he split from his party to back Republican President George W. Bush over contender John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election and since 2003 has frequently criticized problems he sees in his own party.

Criticism

Although Miller was long popular among moderates, conservatives and liberals alike, he wasn't always thought of positively. His work, words and issue positions haven't been without criticism from members of both parties.

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Miller had been seen by some as a "flip-flopper" (one who reverses issue positions quickly) and as non-ideological and unprincipled.(An artist caricatured him by using the word "flip flopper".{{ref|www.gusstevenson.com}})Years before becoming a U.S. Senator, he had been tagged with the nickname "Zigzag Zell". One cited example of supposed "flip-flopping": in the 1980s he served two years on the board of Georgia's leading anti-lottery group, but during his gubernatorial campaign in 1990 indicated his support for a lottery only a few weeks after publicly saying he opposed a lottery. Former President Jimmy Carter viewed Miller as dramatically shifting from moderation in his first gubernatorial term to "black and white" conservative during his second. National allegations of flip-flopping arose during his term in the Senate, most after his endorsement of Bush. One cause of discussion: in 2004, he was an extreme critic of John Kerry, who Miller said wanted weak national defense and "to fight yesterday's war", but at a dinner in Atlanta in 2001, Miller introduced Kerry as "one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders - and a good friend," who had "worked to strengthen our military". In 2002, Miller wrote an editorial for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution stating that (citing the concerns of Georgians who had spoken to him about the issue) set some conditions only under which he would support President Bush's proposed war in Iraq (namely that Bush had to demonstrate that Iraq was uncontainable, should assure multilateral support for any such invasion, and assure that the war was not for oil); days later, although arguably none of his demands were necessarily met, Miller voted for war against Iraq, publicly said that the Iraqi President was a threat, and from then on was a fervent supporter of the war and a critic of those opposed to it. Carter, long a prominent Georgian Democrat, once said he never supported Miller for any elective office (even for Governor) because he felt Miller was not an authentic Democrat for lack of populist values and ideals and inconsistency on a number of important issues.

Related Topics:
Flip-flopper - Arguably none of his demands were necessarily met - Iraqi President

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Miller has also been controversial for harsh, sometimes inflammatory remarks made in public. For instance, on the Senate floor on 2004 May 13, Miller said (though he also denounced the torture) that he refused to join in the outrage over American soldiers' torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, because the expressed dismay was a "national act of contrition."http://miller.senate.gov/press/2004/05-13-04prison.html In his infamous "Deficit of Decency" speech (which prompted him to eventually author a book of the same name) in 2004 Feb., he attributed American societal malaise to rap music, desecration of the American flag, homosexual marriage and non-Christian government, and insinuated that addressing such "indecency" by law was "of utmost importance" in order to save American civilization from extinction.

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Democrats and some Republicans expressed disgust at Miller's speech at the Republican National Convention. Many were quick to note the factual discrepancies in Miller's speech. Some compared Miller's keynote speech to Pat Buchanan's keynote speech at the Republican Convention of 1992 and to the rhetoric that U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy had been known to use during the 1950s. One line of particular ridicule was, "Our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander-in-chief." In an interview on The Daily Show after the speech, U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Republican who was endorsing Pres. Bush, expressed some indifference to the speech. Two days after Miller's speech, NBC News reported that the day after the speech "the Bush campaign?led by the first lady?backed away from Miller's savage attack on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, insisting that the estranged Democrat was speaking only for himself," and on the same day "Miller and his wife were removed from the list of dignitaries who would be sitting in the first family's box during the president's acceptance speech". (Although reporters were told the removal was because Miller would be too busy with interviews, there were no known media interviews conducted during the time of President Bush's speech.) Only hours before that report, First Lady Laura Bush, to an interviewer, said of Miller's speech, "I don't know that we share that point of view."

Related Topics:
Pat Buchanan - Keynote speech at the Republican Convention of 1992 - U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy - John McCain

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Given his increasingly conservative ideology and increasing political distance from the Democratic Party, many Democratic leaders publicly claimed that Miller was no longer a true Democrat. He did in fact stop meeting with the Democratic Party's Senatorial caucus and instead sat in on the Republican one.

Related Topics:
Conservative - Caucus

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Some have said that Miller remained a Democrat because of the increased attention he got when he attacked the Democratic Party as a fellow Democrat. Terry McAuliffe, then chairman of the Democratic National Committee went so far as to accuse the senator of attacking his own party in order to sell books. "If he were just another Republican with a book, he wouldn't sell any. But a Democrat out whacking Democrats sells books," McAuliffe told CNN, urging Miller to switch parties. As a result of Miller's almost complete abandonment of the modern Democratic Party, many other prominent Democrats also stepped up their demands that Miller get out of the party. In his book, "A National Party No More", Miller characterizes himself as the last "Truman Democrat" in the Democratic party, and counters that the party had actually abandoned him.

Related Topics:
Terry McAuliffe - Democratic National Committee

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