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.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Rock ON, Zell! (Ordered the new book online, a few weeks back; just waiting for it to arrive, now...) :)

[Techster]

A ditto bump

[Lazamataz]

They are already freaking out. They are sooo angry they are already writing e-mails to him and want to get him thrown out of the Democratic party. Emotional aren't they?

Um, no offense, but about as mad as we got at McCainiac and Jeffords.

[FreedomPoster]

Whoa!

[Lazamataz]

You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

NO SIXTIES MUSIC ALLOWED!

[FreedomPoster]

You're making it tough on me. I really want to go take a peek, but I always feel so *dirty* after doing so.

[JoJo Gunn]

This is apparently the big announcement Hannity alluded to.

If the DUmmies are slashing their wrists by the trainload, I'm all for it. Two thumbs up!

[NarniaSC]

Nebraska's Ben Nelson is a DINO as well.

[areafiftyone]

I always peek (because I want to know what the enemy is up to) but NEVER EVER post there. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of banning me!

[cwb]

Hey...the madder the merrier. I just don't think will be seeing Zell showing up on Hardball as much as we see McCain.

[Wphile]

A Zell Miller bump!

[areafiftyone]

Oh by the way - antibacterial soap works wonders and you can use lava soap (the rough stuff) to get rid of the residue that sticks to your skin! ;-)

[MattMa]

Zell Millers book A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat. will be released on Nov. 5, 2003. I plan to get one at my local book store.

[Digger]

I'll trade him for Hagel anyday.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Agreed! Peeking in on the left's equivalent of online daycare (the DU boards) is always good for a disbelieving giggle or two. :)

I'm not good at turning these things into actual working links... so: if one of my more cyber-skilled FR brethren could kindly transform this for me, please...?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=190122

Query for all here: when "Jumpin' " Jim Jeffords went turncoat, a few years back, the media was all orgasmic and agog over how his having done so marked him as "a man of true conscience," and suchlike.

Now: what are the odds (he asked, tongue planted firmly in cheek) that this same media will NOT afford the same print plaudits and electronic group hugs to Miller, this time around...? :)

[Vigilantcitizen]

Wow. Thanks for the ping.

[Southack]

"Shhhhhh! Let it be our secret! Let them ignore these issues at their own risk!"

The problem with the Democrats' current strategy is that it is a conscious decision to slow the power swing to Conservatism at the expense of the entire Democratic Party.

Essentially, the liberal Democrats are saying: "Slow the march to conservatism even if it kills our Party."

So they are engaging in a scorched-earth policy the likes of which haven't been seen since Molotov was on the defensive from Manstein.

Seriously. The Democrats' current anti-Iraq mantra is giving ammunition to our political and military enemies around the world, and this anti-Iraq-war mantra is in direct contradiction to what the Democrats themselves said about Hussien and Iraq as little as 5 years ago.

But to the radical extremists who populate the Democratic Party cocktail-circuit elites, it matters less that they are aiding our foreign enemies than that they are sowing seeds of doubt against President Bush.

This has become such an overt problem that the more patriotic Democrats (e.g. Zell Miller, Ed Koch) are endorsing Republicans and rejecting the current anti-American foreign policy spin that is eminating from their urban power-elites.

In the end, America is going to become more Conservative (9/11, plus Baby Boomers are now just beginning to become first-time grandparents, the **most** conservative age in demographics). What the Democratic Party elite can do is to delay this inevitability by completely sacrificing their entire Party now.

So even though inner-city Blacks want private school choice vouchers, the Democrats are against them because those vouchers would speed the American swing to Conservatism by diluting the power of the radical teachers' unions, for instance. Ditto for gun control (where Dems are pitted against their rural constituents), abortion (where Dems are pitted against their own Catholic constituents), gay rights (where Dems are pitted against their Hispanic and Black constituents), and again on drilling in the ANWR (where Dems are fighting their own unions who want those new jobs).

Worse, the Dems are being anti-American in their fight against what we are doing in rebuilding Iraq. In the short term, this will slow the swing of Conservatism to power (though in all practical matters, we're already there), but it will come at a great cost to them, as their Party will be forever fouled by their current obstructionism once Iraq becomes a success story and a model for all future liberators to follow in the future.

[MJY1288]

The DemocRATS deserve nothing better than to have a good man like Zell Miller abandon them and campaign for George W. Bush

This will all but seal up the south for Bush

[areafiftyone]

Here you go
CLICK

[wayoverontheright]

- GOP seats gained in House since Clinton became president: 60 - GOP seats gained in Senate since Clinton became president: 11 - GOP governorships gained since Clinton became president: 14 - GOP state legislative seats gained since Clinton became president: c. 500 - Democratic officeholders who have become Republicans since Clinton became president: 439 - Republican officeholders who have become Democrats since Clinton became president: 3

Great post! They continue to embrace the policies which started this trend. To think that there aren't a lot of Democrat VOTERS who think like Zell, (and obviously the Dems are oblivious) is a BIG mistake.

Gore's CAMPAIGN, which bordered on insanity, started thinking Dems to sit up and take notice, then the ascension of Pelosi, will both prove in hindsight to be pivotal after the bludgeoning they will take in 04.