Posted on 03/25/2004 11:35:50 AM PST by So Cal Rocket
Yesterday I interviewed Senator Zell Miller (D-Georgia) on my radio program. The interview is remarkable in many respects, but especially given his assessment of the implications of the election of John Kerry for the nation's safety, and his rebuttal of the now pervasive charge that Max Cleland's patriotism was attacked in the 2002 campaign. (Miller campaigned long and hard by the side of his old pal Cleland, and Miller's dismissal of the trumped up whine from the left is conclusive on the point.) There's much more of course, but the McCain-Miller gap shows again. The press falls over every statement by Republican Senator John McCain that can be understood as even a minor slam at Bush, but ignores almost completely even massive hits at Kerry from his democratic colleague Miller. Here's the transcript:
Hewitt: Zell Miller is my guest, United States Senator from Georgia, two-term Governor of Georgia as well, United States Marine, there’s no former Marine, he’s still one, author of a wonderful book, A National Party No More, which I’ve linked at HughHewitt.com and as of today, Chairman of Democrats for Bush. Senator Miller, great pleasure to have you on the program.
Miller: It’s good to be with you again.
Hewitt: Senator Miller, I want to start with the very basic question about what you now say. You are a Democrat, you’ve always been a Democrat but today you stood up for George W. Bush. Why?
Miller: Because the Democratic party that I knew and have known for many years left me and I think it left lots of Democrats and that’s one reason that I think we’re going to be able to go out there and get a lot of Democrats who do not want to leave the party, but they do not want to go along the lines of a John Kerry candidacy and they are very much in favor of keeping a man like George Bush in the Presidency at particular a time of danger like we have right now.
Hewitt: Have you been watching the hearings in Washington, D.C. the last two days, Senator Miller?
Miller: I’ve been watching some parts of them. I haven’t had a chance to really watch them like I’d like to but it’s pretty obvious to me that here is a man that wants to blame others for actions that he himself was responsible for overseeing. I mean he was the head of the counter-terrorism for the government for the whole last decade and he has a lot of gall to come along and try to blame others.
Hewitt: You’re referring to Richard Clarke obviously.
Miller: Yes.
Hewitt: Now, do you believe that the Commission has been politicized? Richard Ben-Venistes, a Democratic appointee, today said that no, no no we’re not political but Madelyn Albright yesterday – a lot of this questioning strikes me as an effort to smear the President.
Miller: Well, I think that there are some that would like to smear the President, but I think, and I haven’t seen it that much so I can’t really say except just the news snippets that I’ve seen, it seems to me that we’re pretty balanced.
Hewitt: It has come to light in the last two days that there were numerous opportunities through the nineties--at least three--to take a shot at Bin Laden and we didn’t do it, including the fall of 2000. Why didn’t we do that Senator Miller? What’s your estimate of why paralysis had set in?
Miller: Well, I think it has to do with who was heading up our foreign policy at that time. Obviously, it was not a foreign policy that was very muscular and broad shouldered. It was a policy that was weak willed and wimpy. I mean time and time again from 1993 when the World Trade Center was first bombed and then through the Kobar Tower incident and then the Embassies in Africa, then the Cole – it was very obvious that the terrorists began to think that they could do these things and get away with them and it really almost encouraged them to do it because we would not respond.
Hewitt: In this assessment of the nineties and into the Bush Administration, does the Bush Administration in your view have culpability for 9/11?
Miller: In no way. In no way. I was reading an interview, I didn’t see the interview, but I was reading a transcript of it where Richard Clarke did an interview – I think it was the Fox Network a couple of years ago and he said very plainly that they did not pass –talking about the Clinton Administration—any kind of plan to combat Al Qaeda from the Clinton Administration to the Bush Administration.
Hewitt: Do you think he’s trying to sell books? That he’s manipulating the facts in order to sell books, Senator Miller?
Miller: Well, I think he’s trying to audition himself for a position as an expert on foreign policy, but I think that he really is showing that here he was the person who was in charge who really should really be blamed for an awful lot of what transpired.
Hewitt: Let’s switch to the campaign, Senator Miller. A couple of days ago Senator McCain one of your colleagues came out instead of Senator Kerry, another of your colleagues, John Kerry, that he wasn’t weak on defense. So, I’ll put it to you directly. Do you think John Kerry is weak on defense?
Miller: Well, I think that you have to look at the record. That’s what Casey Stengle used to say. You can look it up and you can look and see that from 1989 to 1995, 38 different times he voted to cut defense. There’s no doubt that this man was a hero when he was in Vietnam. Let’s give him credit for that and let’s thank him for that. But then you also have to look at what he did when he came back from Vietnam and how he slandered his fellow Vietnam veterans and, more importantly that that though, you have to look at what happened after 9/11. I think that you have to look at September 11, 2001, and what did you do after that. And the fact of the matter is that after that he continued to vote to cut defense, he continued to vote to cut intelligence funding and more importantly, he voted against the Homeland Security Bill several times and he voted and this is the most important and I think worst of all, he voted against the 87 billion dollars that we needed to reconstruct Iraq and more importantly even than that, give our soldiers what they had to have as a way of body armor, health care and combat pay.
Hewitt: Senator Miller, this is a tough question because it involves your good friend, Max Cleland, from whom you campaigned in 2002. Senator Cleland has said that the attacks on John Kerry are attacks on John Kerry’s patriotism. Do you believe that?
Miller: No. That is certainly not true. I mean you can talk about what a persons voting record is without smearing them or questioning what they did in Vietnam. I mean just because you want to look at the voting record does not mean that you don’t appreciate what Max Cleland did in Vietnam or what John Kerry did in Vietnam. I mean it’s two separate things.
Hewitt: In 2002 you campaigned for Max Cleland, didn’t you?
Miller: Yes, I did. He’s been a friend for 30 years. I like him very much and I respect him and he’s a great hero, but at the same time, he had a voting record that the people of George didn’t agree with.
Hewitt: There’s that ad that Saxby Chambliss ran that repeatedly –not the Democrats so much—but a lot of the liberal media said was an attack on Senator Cleland’s patriotism. I’m sure you saw it. Do you think that ad was an attack on his patriotism?
Miller: It was an attack on his voting record. You can attack, you can question a man’s voting record without questioning his patriotism. They are two completely separate things.
Hewitt: Senator Miller, when you retire and you go back to Georgia, you’ve written about how you’ve got grandchildren to play with. Is this country going to be more safe or less safe if John Kerry is elected?
Miller: It will be less safe. There is no question in my mind and that was one of the main reasons that I got involved in this group Democrats for George Bush because I think that the next 5 years are going to determine what kind of world my grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in and I want a Commander in Chief that is, has got a spine of steel and a clear head and is not going to suffer from paralysis analysis.
Hewitt: Let me ask you about the war on terror as it stands right now. Did you support the invasion of Iraq, Senator Miller?
Miller: Oh, of course I did.
Hewitt: Is it going well in your view after a year and a week?
Miller: It’s going much better than is usually pictured on news and than Democrats would have you believe.
I was in Iraq in January and I found the morale of the troops to be exceptionally high. I never will forget that I was talking to this Sgt. Major and we were talking about how good the troops morale was and I said how long can it be sustained. And the Sgt. Major looked at me and said as long as these troops know that the folks back home support them. That’s what we’ve got to continue to do. But I saw a country where people were going to school by the thousands. I saw businesses flourish. I saw health care and vaccinations being given to children and to older people that had not been given in years and years and years. I saw a country that I think is going to set an example of what democracy can be in that very dangerous part of the world.
Hewitt: Senator Miller, we have about a minute left. What happened to the Democratic party to take it so far to the left. My grandfather was a fireman and a 100 years-old he died and never voted for a Republican. He was--I guess you call him yellow dog democrat, but his party is not there anymore. What happened?
Miller: Well, they left us and the reason they left us is because the very left leaning special interest groups with their money and with their man power came in and captured the Democratic party that we used to know. The Republicans, of course, they have their special interest groups, but you do not have them to the extent and they are not listened to to the extent that the Democrats are dominated by a lot of the labor unions and NARAL and several of these other groups that really are far, far to the left.
Hewitt: The last question, Senator Miller. A lot of the left says that George W. Bush lies. Do you believe the President to be a truth teller?
Miller: I believe the President to be one of the most honorable and trustworthy individuals that I’ve every known.
Hewitt: Senator Zell Miller, Democrat of Georgia, real honor to talk with you. I look forward to having you back as the campaign progresses.
Miller: It’s good to talk with you again and I’ll look forward to being with you.
Hewitt: Thank you, Senator.
Oh?
It's too bad that the Democrat Party has failed him.
What's too bad is that he didn't jump parties when Jeffords did, to give control of the Senate to conservatives (or, at least, what passes for conservatives in the Senate). Instead, ol' Zell kept the Dems in power until he decided not to seek reelection, and he had nothing to lose.
Furthermore, not unlike Dick Clarke, it seems ol' Zell experienced some sort of great awakening at the same time he's got a book to sell.
Pardon me if I fail to see a "remarkable man of integrity."
I could just as easily say yours is a similarly typical, hero-worshipping rave.
Read Zell's book, then attack him.
Yes, Clarke and Zell Miller certainly have that book thing in common.
One important thing to remember: Zell has NOTHING to gain from any of this.
His publisher might disagree with you on that.
Jeffords had a committee chairmanship,
If Miller had switched parties and given control back to the Republicans, there's no doubt he could have negotiated that for himself. But, in switching, he'd put his re-election chances at risk. It was only after he decided to retire that he wrote his tell-all book and made himself "unpopular" with his "friends" (not to mention a large number of his constituents). Still, he's not nearly as unpopular with some as he would have been, had he jumped parties.
Zell is retiring.
Yes indeed, he's retiring. When Zell has "NOTHING" to lose, he writes a book and rats on his "friends."
He doesn't want another job, and all this does it make him extremely unpopular with many, many people that call him a friend.
It also sells some books.
Shazayum! Ah done bin smote by duh master debater.
Some premises from Zig Zag on his "conversion":
Jimmy Carter was President in the 70s. Zell supported him and his horrible administration. DECADES later, in 1992, at the DNC convention, Zell was STILL giving speeches saying what a great, honorable guy his fellow Georgia RAT governor was. NOW, Zell suddenly realized what a "disappointed" Jimmy was. Must have overlooked him for 24 years!
Zell Miller was always rabidly pro-abortion and ran as a "pro-choice" candidate his entire career. When his kids were born, he kept his 100% pro-abort views. When his grandkids were born, he kept his 100% pro-abort views. But when his GREAT grandkids were born (and he conveniently didn't have to run for re-election), he suddenly "discovered" he was pro-life and supported the cause, 30 years after Roe v. Wade. Forget that he voted against a PBA ban just two years ago, he's a changed man!
Zell Miller now believes the Democratic Party is a national "failure". To show his outrage at their "extreme liberalism", his actions as Senator including voting to make Dasshole plurality when the RATs didn't even have 51 seats, and establishing a voting record like Olympia Snowe. This makes him a "conservative"
>> He still supported Bush on every single issue that came before the Senate <<
Do you want me to list the dozens of examples where he didn't? For starters... Democratic Stimulus and Spending Bill. HR 622 (Roll Call 13) 2002-02-06, ZELL VOTED YES, Federal Pre-emption of Elections., ZELL VOTED YES, every version of McCain-Feingold ZELL VOTED YES, Timely Judicial Hearings. S. 517 (Roll Call 57), Zell voted NO, Elimination of Marriage Penalty HR 1836 (Roll Call Vote No. 113 , Zell voted NO, Jeffords Dairy Cartel S. 1731 (Roll Call Vote No. 362, ZELL VOTED YES...shall I go on?
>> One important thing to remember: Zell has NOTHING to gain from any of this.
Except lots of $$$$ from his book sales.
Let's just say DENNIS Miller's "conversion" is a LOT more convincing that Zig Zag ca$hing on the party in power because he's not running for re-election again.
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