Posted on 03/06/2003 7:37:30 PM PST by groanup
Zell Miller marches to his own beat
By Bill Cotterell
CAPITAL CURMUDGEON
Over the past three dozen years, a lot of politicians have been very kind to send me an autographed picture when they or I have changed cities.
But I've kept only two photos - of Reubin Askew and Zell Miller.
My admiration of Florida's former governor needs no explanation for Tallahassee readers. But Miller is one of the most peculiar politicians the South has every produced. He's lately been in the national spotlight, from Time magazine's weekly "Notebook" page to Jay Leno's monologues, for denouncing plans for a CBS "reality" show purporting to depict "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."
Miller took to the Senate floor to protest the network's idea of taking a poor family out of Appalachia or the Ozarks, plunking them down in the wealthiest part of Los Angeles, then following them around with camera crews for the amusement of TV audiences. The author of a book of homespun reminiscences called "The Mountains Within Me" said he and his neighbors in the north Georgia town of Young Harris aren't flattered by the attention.
"Do you think that CBS would be doing this with an African-American family? Not on your life," Miller said during an appearance on the Don Imus morning radio talkshow this week. "But in most of America, the only group that you can denigrate - that you can humiliate with impunity - is poor, rural, Southern folks."
With an encyclopedic knowledge of country music, Miller used to invite Nashville stars to address the Senate and liked to illustrate his speeches with titles of Bob Wills or Razzy Bailey songs. He can be Jubilation T. Cornpone to make a point or to amuse a friendly audience - but no Yankee should mimic the way he pronounces "perr, rrrrel, suth'n folks."
I knew him when I worked in Atlanta from 1974, when Miller was running for lieutenant governor, to 1984, when I returned to Tallahassee. Around the Georgia Capitol, those who liked Miller called him a shrewd, pragmatic politician who adapted to changing times. Those who didn't labeled him "Zig-Zag Zell."
This was a man who ran an archly conservative congressional campaign and lost, then headed the Georgia Democratic Party in the 1960s. He was a top aide to Gov. Lester Maddox (1967-71), but became an early supporter of Jimmy Carter for president. As lieutenant governor, he ran against the late Sen. Herman Talmadge in the 1980 Democratic primary and lost so badly that he couldn't run for governor two years later. (Miller wound up spending 16 years in the second spot before restoring his conservative credentials enough to win the top job.)
As governor, he brought about the state lottery and hired ex-Florida lottery boss Rebecca Paul to run it. He then set up a scholarship program for bright, needy kids similar to Florida's lottery-funded Bright Futures program. In one of the most politically telling episodes of his first term, Miller tried to change Georgia's state flag by removing the Confederate stars-and-bars emblem.
He knew what he was getting into and by all appearances was not surprised when legislators resoundingly rejected his flag idea. So he dropped it and moved on. That's a lesson Gov. Sonny Perdue and the governor he defeated, Roy Barnes, must now wish they'd heeded.
Miller, an ex-Marine infantry sergeant and former college history professor, happily retired to the mountain town where his mother had built the family home with her own hands. Barnes appointed him to the Senate when Republican Paul Coverdell died a few years ago and Miller was easily elected for the remainder of Coverdell's term in 2000.
In the Senate, Miller seems to have mystified the Washington media. When Sen. Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party and gave control of the Senate to the Democrats, it was widely reported that the White House was trying to get it back by persuading Miller to switch to the GOP. He wouldn't do it, although he avidly supports President Bush and rarely misses an opportunity to warn his own party that it's slipping back into a McGovern-era irrelevancy.
He wrote an op-ed column in The New York Times on gun control that said, essentially, never mind guns. The issue is trust, Miller explained, and Democrats who are for gun control are basically telling voters, "I'm not like you, I'm better, so vote for me." For some reason, that doesn't win many elections.
Now Miller is supporting Bush's tax cuts, his Iraq policies and the federal court nomination of Miguel Estrada. At 71, he's reached what Lawton Chiles called "the-don't-give-a-damn" stage of political life, with no plans to run next year for the re-election he could probably win in a walk.
In fact, it wouldn't be too surprising if he winds up endorsing Bush.
"I like President Bush a great deal; I think the man has a backbone," Miller said. "I think he has a good heart. But I'm a Democrat."
If there were more like him, or if the party had listened to Miller over the years, the Democrats wouldn't be in the shape they're in now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted for discussion purposes only.
They probably wouldn't be the Democratic party, either ;)
Zell just hangs on to the Democrat label for old times sake. He hates what the Demoncrats have become,and has said he won't run for reelection
This has to be the one time I'm irritated that a politician sticks to his guns and shows some integrity.
You can weap over his departure. Since their betrayal in Clinton impeachment, I have no sympathy for ANY Senate Democrats, includes the "centrist" ones who elect Daschle plurality leader and then try to sit on the fence like Miller and Breaux. Personally, I'm glad Georgia voters will have an opporunity to elect a REAL conservative. Zell Miller can't hold a candle to Paul Coverdell.
LOL. I'm only fat where it shows.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.