Zell Miller Endorses Bush

The Weekly Standard ^ | 10/29/2003 | Fred Barnes

[HarleyD]

SENATOR ZELL MILLER OF GEORGIA, the nation's most prominent conservative Democrat, said today he will endorse President Bush for re-election in 2004 and campaign for him if Bush wishes him to. Miller said Bush is "the right man at the right time" to govern the country.

The next five years "will determine the kind of world my children and grandchildren will live in," Miller said in an interview. And he wouldn't "trust" any of the nine Democratic presidential candidates with governing during "that crucial period," he said. "This Democrat will vote for President Bush in 2004."

Miller, who is retiring from the Senate next year, has often expressed his admiration for Bush. He was a co-sponsor of the president's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. The two got to know each other in the 1990s when both were governors.

The senator's endorsement is important for several reasons. With Miller on board, Bush will have a head start on forming a Democrats for Bush group in 2004. Such a group would woo crossover votes from conservative or otherwise disgruntled Democrats next year. In 2000, an effort by the Bush campaign to form a Democrats for Bush organization fizzled.

Since he came to the Senate in 2000, Miller has become increasingly critical of Senate Democrats and the national Democratic party. He recently published a new book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," in which he criticizes the party for being too liberal, too elitist, and subservient to liberal interest groups. In the book, Miller singles out Democratic presidential frontrunner Howard Dean, whom he knew as governor of Vermont, for being shallow.

[RJayneJ]

Thanks for the heads up! };^D)

[epow]

Why will he not switch parties?

You would probably have to spend some time around this part of the country to understand why not. I live about 20 miles from where Zell was born and raised and where he still lives when not in DC. The rivalry between Dems and Repubs in this area is intense and bitter, and it goes all the way back to the War Between the States.

The mountain areas of GA, as well as TN, NC,VA and KY, were bitterly divided over the secession issue. Many of the people in this area were descendents of poor Scots-Irish and English immigrants. Many of those settlers had come to the colonies as indentured servants, and their descendents had little or no sympathy for the slave-owning cotton-planter class in the rest of the south. There was about as much Union sentiment in this part of the south as Confederate. Many families were split apart over the issue, and there was much raiding, burning, and killing done by both sides. Very few people in this isolated and dirt-poor area owned slaves, and there was considerable abolitionist sentiment.

Since the families who supported the Confederacy were almost exclusively Democrats, and the pro-Union families were mostly Republican, the internecine fighting was seen as Democrat versus Republican by both sides. And that old hostility still lives on to a lesser extent in many families. Election day in this area used to be quite lively to say the least, even in fairly recent times. Fistfights were not rare, and gunplay was not unknown. My wife's uncle shot and killed a man during a gunfight at a polling place in a schoolhouse about 60 years ago. His case was heard by a majority Republican jury and he got off with a 1 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter. If the jury had been all Democratic he might have died in prison.

I have heard that Zell promised his parents long ago he would never under any circumstance become a Republican. I don't know whether or not that story is true, but if it is it would explain why he still hangs on in a party which left him decades ago. I voted against Zell for both governor and Senator, but I always thought that a patriotic Marine vet like him was way out of place in the effete, leftist, anti-American national Democrat party as it has now evolved. But he has so far honored his vow to his father, if indeed that story is true.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Man, if anyone at FR posted dirty words like that, JimRob would probably ban him for life!

[Political Junkie Too]

Would Zell Miller have been electable had he actually run for the Senate? He sounds like the kind of guy the Democrats would have skewered during the primaries.

-PJ

[Ima Lurker]

I'm shocked.

[Theodore R.]

Beware of Isakson. He supports abortion. Cain would be better. Will there be a runoff possibly for the GOP nomination?

[BOBWADE]

I still wish he would stay in the senate and just switch parties. Perhaps we could trade Mcstain for Miller.

[Bob J]

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[Sonny M]

No surprise, but still good news. Also, concerning the DUers, who cares? This will carry a lot of weight with moderates and swing voters. I'm happy.

Regarding the DUer's, no one, not even office holding democrats care. The party considers them kooks who are out of touch, and while the du'ers call all the time, no one takes them seriousley, the few who even know what DU is, I don't even think most of the media has a clue who they are. Out of the left wing groups, they are way to small and insignificant.

Funny story, I know a girl who works for our local congress woman, our happy go lucky congress woman is as liberal as can be, we're talking Pelosi terroritory here, the Du'ers do call her every now and then, usually supportively. She told my friend that she thought they were all nuts and well meaning, but a little crazy and annoying.

[Tabi Katz]

Better late than never.

[Salvation]

Zell Miller is a "stand up" person, regardless of the fact that this is coming in the year before he retires.

[LayoutGuru2]

Interesting. Thanks for the analysis.

[RinaseaofDs]

Between Koch and Miller, and there are others out there, there is certainly a possibility for a D's for Bush effort.

I grew up D in a massive D state, married into a D family, and live in WA state, which is insanely liberal (to the extent that Maria Cantwell, D-Real Networks, is for letting the moratorium on the Internet tax die) I know a good many people that in the privacy of the voting booth, many will go Bush.

[areafiftyone]

You are not you quoting me. I didn't say that. Please make sure you are quoting the correct freeper before you call someone clueless.

[ChadGore]

Arnie out west and Zell down south . . the GOP continues to attract good talent.

Bush leadership BUMP !

[areafiftyone]

Every other word out of their mouths is a curse. Its amazing that they have no admin moderator rules for foulmouthed people on that forum. They also call anyone who doesn't believe exactly the way they believe a "FREEPER". Even their own relatives. And 90% of the people they are talking about are NOT members of Free Republic. They have such hatred in their forums its amazing they don't kill each other off.

[evad]

(AIDS, abortion, euthanasia - don't liberals just kill ya?)

Yeah..
I would add "war" to that tagline.

[areafiftyone]

oops - My apologies. I didn't realize you were quoting a DUer. Again, my apologies. LOL I need some rest!

[floriduh voter]

Zell Miller Bush Bump. The Race for Re-Election has Begun!

Floriduh Voter

[Moose4]

Good analysis. Never underestimate the hostility toward the Republican party in the older generation of Southerners. It's 140 years after the fact, but to some down here, the GOP is, and will always be, the Party of Lincoln--with all the negatives that that brings along with it to a Southerner.

Plus, FDR and LBJ were popular for their big public works programs (TVA) and "getting people back to work." To this day, that populist economic streak runs strong in the South. There's lots of folks here that don't trust big business and "country-club Republicans," and still have a very populist Huey Long-like streak on economic issues, while being foreign policy hawks and rock-solid socially conservative. That is why Bush has to be very careful in the South. If jobs keep draining out of the country and the economy down here is slow to recover, it could still come back to haunt him, regardless of our successes in foreign policy and the War on Terror.

}:-)4