Last week's Republican Convention had many high points: speeches from the president, first lady, and the "Governator," Arnold Schwarzenegger. No speech, however, electrified the delegates, or the Democrats for that matter, like the speech of Sen. Zell Miller, a Democrat from Georgia. Finally losing patience with the deplorable actions of Senate Democrats and the Democratic party as a whole, Miller endorsed George W. Bush for re-election.
Miller gave the speech at the same podium where twelve years earlier he excoriated former President Bush at the 1992 Democratic Convention. Back then, he said the elder Bush "just didn't get it." This time, he said it was the Kerry/Edwards team that was lost. Miller's no-nonsense speech hit on several issues dealing with John Kerry's past. He said, "Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside." Kerry voted against a ban on late-term abortions and the Laci Peterson law. At an appearance in Iowa he claimed to be pro-life. Kerry voted to raise taxes more than 350 times. Now he promises a tax cut, something no Democrat since Kennedy has done, and what is considered anathema to the Dems.
Zell Miller also read a laundry list of defense bills Kerry voted against, including bills that provided for fighter aircraft and missiles. These weapons are now in the forefront of the War on Terror. When Miller asked how Kerry would plan to arm the military in light of his votes, he offered one possibility - spitballs. John Edwards did not warm to Miller's remarks, saying he believed the senator "went over the top." Isn't it ironic that now not only are doubts about Kerry's military service off limits, but now his voting record is as well? What basis are people supposed to vote for John Kerry? His hair?
The reaction of other Democrats and the media is proof positive of the Democrats' harshness and the media's inherent bias. In 1992, after then-Gov. Miller tore into the elder Bush, ABC's Mike Schneider cited it as an example of the Democrats engaging in "the time-honored tradition of attacking the opposition." Now that Miller is supporting the opposition, he is "an angry, rabid elephant" according to the DNC.
Tom Brokaw even questioned whether Miller went too far with his rhetoric, and George Stephanopoulos said Miller was "on a tirade." Neither reporter had the same reactions after venomous and baseless convention speeches from Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean and the most high "Rev." Al Sharpton. After a year of non-stop and vicious attacks on President Bush, Republicans and Bush supporters are being told to watch their mouths.
Anne Lewis, a Democratic strategist and a fully deputized Clintonista, described Miller as a "self-aggrandizing curmudgeon who is more interested in puffing up his ego." Sounds more like a description of Michael Moore to me.
What gets lost in the midst of all the political maneuvering of the day is who Miller really is. Born poor in an Appalachian valley, he joined the Marines and went on to become the governor of Georgia and one of its senators in 2000. Contrary to what you would think, he has not registered as a Republican, but remains on the rolls as a Democrat. His vote this November for President Bush will be his first for the GOP in his 52 years of voting. When asked how he feels about the Democratic party today, he likens it to having lived in a house all your life and suddenly finding people in the basement and not knowing how they got there. He is echoing the same sentiments as Ronald Reagan, who quipped, "I didn't leave the Democratic party, the party left me."
One Democratic senator expressed "shock" at his colleague's alignment with the Republicans. "Something has happened to Zell," they said. No, nothing has happened to Zell. He just realized that the party he had given much of his life to is wrong, and that the right man for the job just happens to have an "R" after his name.
