Prominent Democrat to support Bush in 2004

Zell Miller Endorses Bush
The Democratic senator from Georgia comes out swinging for the president.
by Fred Barnes
10/29/2003 3:25:00 PM


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.

 

Zell Miller began his career in public service in 1959 with a term as mayor of Young Harris, Georgia. In 1960, he was elected to the Georgia Senate at the age of 28. In 1974, he won the first of four consecutive terms as Georgia’s lieutenant governor. Then in 1990, Miller ran for governor and won the first of two terms he would serve as the state’s top leader.

Miller’s HOPE Scholarship program was dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as "the most far-reaching scholarship program in the nation.’’ His pre-kindergarten program won an award for innovation from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

After leaving the governor’s office in 1999, Miller taught at Emory University and at his alma maters, the University of Georgia and Young Harris College. Five books have been written by Miller, including "Corps Values: Everything You Need To Know I Learned in the Marines." He also served on several corporate boards before joining the Senate, where he now serves.

Excerpted from A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat by Zell Miller. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
And so, Mr. Miller went to Washington. I wish I could say the experience has been like Jimmy Stewart’s in ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’ I wish I could say that I found Washington all I had ever dreamed it to be, the place where the great issues of the day are debated and solved, and great giants walk those hallowed halls. I so wanted Robert Louis Stevenson to be wrong when he wrote, "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive."

Unfortunately, what I discovered in Washington was truth, and truth did not set me free. It simply made me mad. It filled me with anger on behalf of Americans. You might still ask why I would want to take my own party to the woodshed. The answer is simple: My conscience made me do it.


With the growl of the Marine sergeant he was, Senator Zell Miller leaves no doubt that he believes his own Democratic Party is badly out of step with most of the country and needs to shape up or ship out.

As part of a stinging critique of the Democratic Party, Miller outlines key positions on important issues that can again make the party relevant for the entire nation. From tax cuts to welfare, gun control to the environment, the arts to education, immigration to terrorism, Miller identifies values that make sense to a growing majority of Americans.

Miller’s candid analysis of the campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton further underscores his conclusion that the Democratic Party can no longer field a serious presidential challenge.

Many party loyalists will not like what Senator Miller writes; yet his credentials are beyond question, for few Democrats have worked longer or stronger for the party and its candidates. Zell Miller has served in an elective office in each of the last six decades. When he left office as governor after two terms, he had an 85 percent approval rating, prompting the Washington Post to call him the most popular governor in the country. After getting to Washington, he became President Bush’s biggest Democratic supporter, but steadfastly refused to switch parties.

A National Party No More is a firsthand account from the enigmatic senator who has confounded his Democratic colleagues. Driven by conscience and common sense, Senator Miller names the self-destructive direction of his party and stubbornly pulls the Democratic family toward reform.

 

That is great new Maverick! Sen. Miller's endorsement along with Jeb Bush's continued popularity in Florida are important component's in keeping the South solid for the GOP. I've already noticed how Dean, Gephardt, and the Senate Democrats are softening on anti gun legislation (Daschle is co-sponsering a bill to shield firearms manufacturers from libel!) The Dem's clearly see the political liability in the South of subverting Second Amendment rights.

A few weeks ago I was concerned that 2004 might parallel 1976 with Dean having a Carteresque climb from oblivion. I now see this as just another second term swamp for Bush, ala Ike, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton.