Zell Miller
Elected as a Democrat, Miller served as Lieutenant Governor from 1975 to 1990, Governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999, and as United States Senator from 2000 to 2005.
Although a member of the Democratic Party, Miller backed Republican President George W. Bush over Democratic nominee John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election and since 2003 has frequently criticized the Democratic Party, and has publicly supported several Republican candidates.
In 2006, Miller did voice-overs (narrations) for Republican candidate commercials in Georgia state elections (George "Sonny" Perdue and Ralph Reed).
Miller did not seek re-election in 2004. After leaving the Senate he joined the law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge, in the firm's national Government Affairs practice. Miller is also a frequent Fox News Channel contributor.
Early life
Miller was born in the small mountain town of Young Harris, Georgia.
Miller spent his first two years of college at Young Harris College in his home town. Miller holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in history from the University of Georgia.
Less than a month after the Korean War ended, Miller wound up in a drunk tank in the North Georgia Mountains.
Miller claimed later that this incident was the lowest point of his life. During his three years in the United States Marine Corps, Miller attained the rank of Captain.
He often refers to the value of his experience in the Marine Corps in his writing and stump speeches; in his book on the subject, entitled Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marines, he wrote:
"In the twelve weeks of hell and transformation that were Marine Corps boot camp, I learned the values of achieving a successful life that have guided and sustained me on the course which, although sometimes checkered and detoured, I have followed ever since."
In addition to his political offices, Miller has taught a variety of classes at Young Harris College, the University of Georgia, and Emory University.
Political career
Miller's father and mother were both involved in local politics in the North Georgia mountains. Miller, a Democrat, was Mayor of Young Harris from 1959 to 1960, and was elected to two terms as a Georgia state senator during the 1960s.
In 1964 and 1966, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. He endorsed segregation in both races, a move he later publicly regretted.
He later served in several positions in state government and in the Georgia Democratic Party.
Miller's first experience in the executive branch of government was as Chief of Staff for Georgia governor Lester Maddox. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in 1974, serving four terms from 1975 to 1991, through the terms of Governors George Busbee and Joe Frank Harris, making him the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Georgia history.
Senator) after defeating Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and future Governor Roy Barnes in the primary. Miller campaigned on the concept of term limits and pledged to seek only a single term as Governor.
He became close to Clinton, and some political commentators described Miller's support as critical in helping Clinton hold the South and secure the nomination after a rocky start in the Democratic primaries. Miller gave the keynote speech at the 1992 Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Bush "just doesn't get it", and he remarked of Vice President Dan Quayle:
"Not all of us can be born rich, handsome, and lucky, and that's why we have a Democratic Party."
As governor, Miller was a staunch promoter of public education. During this time, he helped found the HOPE Scholarship, which paid for the college tuition (paid by funds collected from the lottery and from state income taxes) of Georgia students who both established a GPA of 3.0 in high school and maintained the same while in college.
In December 1995, his office announced a proposal for $1 billion more in spending on education. Some have said that the 1994 election was a turning point in Miller's career, arguing it gave him a desire to prove himself a cultural conservative.
The rise of sexual abuse cases arising from his controversial efforts eventually brought an end to the program.
Upon leaving the Governor's office in January 1999, Miller accepted teaching positions at Young Harris College, Emory University, and The University of Georgia. He was a visiting professor at all three institutions when he was appointed to the U.S.
Senate.
Senate
Miller's successor as governor, Roy Barnes, appointed Miller to a U.S. He easily won a special election to keep the seat in November 2000.
During the campaign to keep the seat, Miller spoke warmly of his late friend Coverdell, praised Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, and promised to work for bipartisanship in the Senate.
As Coverdell had last been elected in 1998, Miller had four years remaining in the Senate term before his retirement from politics in January 2005, following the conclusion of the 108th United States Congress.
Throughout Zell Miller's career as a U.S.
Senator he showed increasing support for Republicans and increasing criticism of Democrats, leading some to question whether his fellow Democrats in the senate had given him a lukewarm reception. However, given his beginnings as a conservative southern Democrat, it is likely he found his views drastically different from the more liberal ideology of the national party
During 2001 and 2002, when liberal Republican senators from New England like James Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee threatened to (and in Jeffords' case, did) leave their party over ideological disputes, rumors abounded that Miller would become a Republican in order to return control of the Senate to that party.
(Chambliss denied that.) Miller remained true to the Democrats in this case, campaigning hard for Cleland despite their ideological differences. But after Chambliss won, Miller formed a close working relationship with him.
In 2003, Miller announced that he would not seek re-election after completing his term in the Senate.
On March 11 of that year, he introduced legislation that would have created a board of "shapers of opinions" (as he called it in his introductory speech) to advise broadcasters on content the government deemed acceptable or unacceptable, and to make automatic re-appropriations of some of the revenue generated from media-"indecency" fines to pay for federal services directed through religious establishments. Senators from the people back to the state legislatures, as the Constitution originally provided for).
Miller established himself as a conservative on virtually all economic issues.
He strongly opposed the estate tax and voted a number of times for its repeal. He also advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Miller argued in his book A National Party No More (authored and published in 2003) that the Democratic Party lost its majority because it does not stand for the same ideals that it did in the era of John F.
He argued that the Democratic Party, as it now stands, is a far-left-wing party that is out of touch with the America of today and that the Republican Party now embraces the conservative Democratic ideals that he has held for so long.
Despite Miller's frequent disagreements with his own party, he did occasionally support some of their positions. For example, he was a strong supporter of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
Miller also, in October 2003, voted with most of his party to prohibit the enforcement of the ban on travel to Cuba. And despite his support of a Federal Marriage Amendment, on June 15, 2004, Miller voted with every single member of his party to include sexual orientation in hate crime laws.
Miller decided not to run for reelection to the US Senate in 2004.
Miller supported and endorsed Republican Isakson for election.
Speech at 2004 Republican National Convention
In his keynote convention speech, delivered on September 1, 2004, Miller criticized the current state of the Democratic party. First, in an interview with CNN, Miller had a dispute with Judy Woodruff, Wolf Blitzer, and Jeff Greenfield when they questioned him on his speech, particularly on whether he had misinterpreted the context and full content of Kerry's votes, and the fact that Dick Cheney, as Defense Secretary, had opposed some of the same programs he attacked Kerry for voting against.
Shortly thereafter, Miller appeared in an interview with Chris Matthews on the MSNBC show Hardball.
Matthews criticized the premise of Miller's assertion that Kerry had actually voted against such defense programs by noting that in voting on appropriations bills, senators often vote against a version of a bill without wishing to oppose every item in that bill. Matthews also asked Miller to compare his assertion that a military under Kerry would be armed with only "spitballs" with rhetoric from Democrats that Republicans "want to starve little kids, they want to get rid of education, they want to kill the old people" and whether such level of rhetoric was constructive.
When Miller expressed irritation at this line of questioning, Matthews pressed Miller with the question "Do you believe now — do you believe, Senator, truthfully, that John Kerry wants to defend the country with spitballs?" Miller at first said that he wished the interview had been face-to-face so that he could "get a little closer up into your face." Miller angrily told Matthews to "get out of my face," and declared: "I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel." At the conclusion of the interview, Matthews asked "Let's be friends," which Miller ignored. The interview was later parodied on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and by Darrell Hammond and Will Forte on Saturday Night Live.
Delivering this keynote speech made Miller the only man of the modern era to keynote the conventions of both major parties (as he had previously delivered the 1992 Democratic National Convention keynote address).
Remarks on Bush re-election
After President Bush was re-elected, Miller referred to the Republican victories in that election (including a sweep of five open Senate seats in the South) as a sign that Democrats didn't relate to most Americans. Calling for Democrats to change their message, he authored an editorial, which appeared in the Washington Times on November 4, 2004, in which he wrote:
Life after politics
In August 2005, President Bush appointed Miller to the American Battle Monuments Commission.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association.
Zell Miller is lauded in conservative circles but is increasingly distant from the Democratic Party.
The event was organized by Tony Perkins and James Dobson, and held in Nashville, Tennessee on August 14, 2005.
Miller criticized the United States Supreme Court, saying, that it had "removed prayer from our public schools … legalized the barbaric killing of unborn babies and it is ready to discard like an outdated hula hoop the universal institution of marriage between a man and a woman."
Books
By Zell Miller:
1975: Mountains Within Me
1983: Great Georgians
1985: They Heard Georgia Singing
1997: Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned In the Marines
1999: The First Battalion of the 28th Marines on Iwo Jima: A Day-By-Day History from Personal Accounts and Official Reports, With Complete Muster Rolls, also by Robert E.