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Thu 30 Oct, 2003 08:58 am
Zell Miller, Democratic senator from GA, says Bush " right man, at the right time to be President but will not change parties.
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
Fred Barnes, executive editor
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.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
Zell Miller is and has been a Republican for a long time.
But he's a registered Democrat
He is an ideological republican. One must wonder why he bothers to maintain the facade that he is a democrat.
At first I was appalled that former Gov. Roy Barnes (D) appointed a Democrat to fill the seat of the late Republican Sen Paul Coverdale; but then I saw that he was not a Democrat OR a Republican - he's a Statesman. He's a man who is going to do what's right for his constituants and his country, regardless of which party's agenda it is.
Rezman:
Well said and welcome to A2K----you won't find much political support here----we are a rare breed on A2K.
The Weekly Standard and its editor Fred Barnes are well-known for conservative viewpoints.
I do not think the endorsement of Dubya by Sen. Miller will prove meaningful to Dubya's candidacy. Miller is not a national figure; he is little known outside the state of Georgia.
William Henry
Well of course this was published in a conservative paper----you don't think the NYTimes would publish this until they are forced to comment.
This time next year with the Bush campaign war chest, Zell Miller will be a movie star Known far and wide even under the sand to Paul Krugman.
Yes,
perception, I know Zell Miller has big potential in Hollywood's porno films . . . I know pornography when I see it . . . and a Democrat posing as a Republican is
pornography.
au1929 wrote:He is an ideological republican. One must wonder why he bothers to maintain the facade that he is a democrat.
He was just on the Daily Show today. He says that the Democratic party is like an old broken house to him. He wants to move but he only has 1 year left anyway.
ye11o:
Actually I sometimes think Miller needs to realize that people like him are the PROBLEM with the party, and that the MoveOn.org types are the solution.
"Back to basics" seems to work well for football--why not politics.
perception, if this forum is so unpleasant and unwelcoming to you why do you stay ?
I'm not asking you to leave or trying to pick a fight, I'm just curious.
Miller needs to show some hair on his balls and just crossover, but I wouldn't expect that from a GWB egg suck Georgia red hound like him.
Miller is a hold-out from my dad's era. The Democrat party meant something entirely different to those men and women. We were all Democrats. When the Dem party changed, most people (in Georgia)switched parties. Zell never did. He still sees the Dem party as it was, and blames the Dem leadership for turning the party into something else...
Whether he's right or wrong, that is the story.
Well, I guess this means that Dubya will carry Georgia.
Who wudda thunk!
Zell Miller is a democrat in name only. Ideologically he left the party some time ago. He has simply not been honest enough to make the switch
Sofia:
Exactly!
And I think I finally located when the switch really started--with Thurmond's "DixieCrats".
Nixon's "Southern Strategy" was simply the finialization of the party of Lincoln becoming the party of Lott.
NeoGuin wrote:Sofia:
Exactly!
And I think I finally located when the switch really started--with Thurmond's "DixieCrats".
Nixon's "Southern Strategy" was simply the finialization of the party of Lincoln becoming the party of Lott.
NeoGuin--
Hi.
I realize there are those who believe racists left the Dem party when black issues rose to the forefront of the Dem policies. I hope most thinking people can accept that, while this may be partially true--there are also former Democrats who do not fit into that mold--who became disillusioned by other dramatic changes in the Democrat party. Complicated issues are never so one dimensional.
However, to give you credence (not that you need it from me)--the race factor was most likely a precipitant to some.
Bi-Polar Bear wrote:perception, if this forum is so unpleasant and unwelcoming to you why do you stay ?
I'm not asking you to leave or trying to pick a fight, I'm just curious.
I'm doing it for you, Pdid, Tartarin et al-----I'm protecting you from yourselves----you don't seem to realize that back slapping agreement is destructive to one's intellectual development. My motivations are entirely altruistic
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