Miller Book Calls Democrats out of Touch...

[burr]

from the AJC,
<snip>
Miller said "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," is intended as an explanation for those who continually ask why he supports tax cuts and the Bush administration's efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Whenever I was governor, I cut taxes three times and nobody raised an eyebrow," Miller said in an interview Thursday. "I passed not just a 'three strikes and you're out' bill but a 'two strikes.' I appointed a chairman of the state Board of Education . . . who happened to be a Republican. I did those kinds of things back in Georgia and . . . everybody understood it and everybody thought that was OK.

"I come up here and I want to do tax cuts and I want to punish criminals and from time to time I want to . . . vote with Republicans, and they look at me as if I was from Mars," said Miller, who was appointed to the Senate in 2000 after the death of Republican Paul Coverdell and later won election to the seat. "And so I kind of wanted to explain my background and where I came from and why I think and have come to think the way I do."
<snip>


For years most political analysts and Georgians have been wondering what planet Zell Miller is really from. Mars would be a little too close to home please most people. Not only do people have problems with Zell's three strikes and your out, but Jimmy Carter said that repealing this should be a top priority at the forum on race relations held with Governor Perdue. He also stated it was wrong to have so few public defenders available in our justice system when we pay prosecutors better. Finally, I think it is Miller's three taxcuts that have caused recent cuts in spending on education, healthcare, and basic infrastructure improvements..which are needed more than ever in that state. But at the time, nobody raised an eyebrow because the state wasn't over $6 trillian in the hole.

<http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1003/17miller.html>

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. It's fine if Zell feels this way

But he should clearly switch parties, since he does not represent core Democratic values.

[bushisanidiot]

2. I thought they were talking about Dennis Miller

I got about half way down and was thinking.. Dennis Miller was a governor??

der..

<oxymoran moment! ;>

[CatWoman]

3. Same here, Bushisanidiot

same here :D

[0007]

8. Me too!

Zell & Dennis are in the same league.

[Jazzgirl]

28. LOL!

I thought the same thing. "Gee, Dennis Miller was a governor?" LOL!

Jazzgirl

[kodi]

4. he's a liar. tax cuts left unpaid programs required by law, thus we borrow

instead of pay as we go.

miller is fiscally irreponsible.

[veganwitch]

5. "from time to time" he wants to vote repuke?!?!

try something like 99% of the time. i have no problem with people of a conservative political view, but present yourself honestly. dont project yourself (or allow others to do so) as a liberal if you are centrist and dont project yourself as a democrat when you are a republican.

[burr]

9. I agree...

when has recking fiscal solvency, spending our children's money foolishly in Iraq, and allowing chickenheart to guard the henhouse been a good idea?

[joeybee12]

6. A truly ignorant man

He's apparently never been out of Georgia before going to the Senate.

And he apparently doesn't realize when to cut and when not to cut taxes.

What a stupid, stupid person.

I'm sorry, it's not simply a difference in ideology. The man is ignorant.

[benfranklin1776]

10. Most ignorant indeed.

Among his many idiocies, Zell criticizes the party for allegedly "push{ing} for more labor rights for workers in the then-planned Homeland Security Department." Actually Zell has that bass ackwards. The Democrats were insisting that these workers not be stripped of the rights that they already had just by virtue of a bureaucratic reclassification. They weren't asking for any more rights
than those workers already had which were not interfering in their ability to do their jobs. Indeed the mounting evidence regarding 9/11 suggests a massive failure of "management" not workers having "too many rights." There is nothing out of the mainstream about Max's position since when last Gallup polled the matter in early 2003 a whopping sixty six percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of unions while only 22 percent had an unfavorable opinion. http://www.freep.com/money/business/aflcio26_20030226.htm Sounds like supporting the rights of working men and women is pretty mainstream to me.

What Zell tacitly acknowledges with his blatherings is that the Rethugs shamelessly demagogued the issue by
making the asininely ludicrous inisnuation that protecting the workers who protect us was somehow "damaging" national security. Zell of course leaves out those very "classy" ads that those "mainstream" Rethugs ran questioning war hero Cleland's patriotism by using Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's picture. http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?pid=794 The Democrats mistake was not responding to such pure demagoguery with a concerted furious counterattack the likes of which would have purged the ghost of Lee Atwater once and for all from modern politics. And of course lets not forget the lovely electronic voting machines which were used for the first time in Georgia with less than stellar performance results. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1013-01.htm

Zell should have switched parties since it is he who has fallen out of the mainstream and is better suited to the company of extremist conservatives like Junior and DeLay.

[cosmicdot]

7. they look at me as if I was from Mars

maybe conservative Republicans are from Mars, and progressive Democrats are from Venus

:shrug:

Zellout should have followed the Dixiecrats' exit.

[Cush]

11. Hmm, has he been on FOX yet?

as part of a promotional tour?

[David__77]

12. That was my first thought! Fox...

Of course he'll represent the "Democratic point of view" and they'll bring in Tom Delay to serve as the amen corner.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

13. Zell Miller's idea of "progressive" is raising taxes on the....

poor and middle class, ruining the enviroment, and bankrupting the country!!! Mr. Miller needs to retire next year as he is, thank you God!!! He should go spend some time with Jesse Helms! They seem to have as similar idealogy!

Congressman Gene Taylor, a Democrat from Missisippi is NO left/liberal (pro-Iraq War) but is pro labor rights, anti-free trade, and a true fiscal conservative!!! He opposed Bush's tax windfall for Ken Lay and Co and has opposed most of the spending increases that Bush has wanted and he WILL NOT raid the Social Security Fund to pay for this shit that Bush wants!!!

How the Hell is cutting taxes and increasing spending being fiscally conservative Mr. Miller???????

He needs to join the Dixiecrats!!!

:dem:

[bluestateguy]

14. I suppose we are out of touch...

With SUV driving, flag waving, Southern Baptist fundamentalist, homophobic and racist people. But somehow I don't think even the most dedicated pandering would win these persons' votes. In fact, I doubt many of these people even vote for Miller, though they may say nice things about him and use him as an example of an "even" Democrat: "EVEN Zell Miller supports (insert Bush policy)". Democrats who naively think that we can be the party of American flags, Apple Pie, the Pledge of Allegience, young children singing "God Bless America" before school, Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads and old-fashioned morality, are deluding themselves. Let's write these voters off, and tell them the truth: that the Democratic Party has nothing to say to them and nothing to offer them.

P.S. And no, that does not mean write off the south.

[kwolf68]

16. Yea buddy

Amen. Eff them.

The people we need to get are: The NON-voters...People so disaffected, so apathetic with the system they feel no urge to vote.

The "SUV driving, flag waving, Southern Baptist fundamentalist, homophobic and racist people" dittoheads are a lost cause and we should waste not a single minute in trying to convince them they are wrong.

[LisaM]

15. Whenever someone cites his own conscience....

I get wary. People who REALLY listen to their own consciences do not need to broadcast it.

[benfranklin1776]

17. Indeed. Quite right.

Reminds me of the Emerson quote: "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."

[burr]

18. to late...

he's already gone!!!

But Zell did leave us the wooden forks. :evilgrin:

[benfranklin1776]

20. Guard them carefully, for they may be next to disappear!

Another casualty of "OverZellousness"

:evilgrin:

[donco6]

19. He should gather up his speck of integrity and . . .

. . . switch parties. "Conservative Democrat" indeed.

[leesa]

21. I think it's less that than the fact that they are all rich and this is

class warfare. They want what the greedy rich Republicans want...payola.

[tlb]

22. Like it or not Miller makes some fair points.

Look how regularly you see southern bashing threads here. Many here think the democratic party is New England and California and to hell with below the Mason-Dixon line.

I don't see this attitude fully reflected in the national party, but the tendency seems to be growing. Knee-jerk disdain for such a significant portion of the electorate is a formula for failure.

[Classical_Liberal]

29. Since most of Miller's constituants aren't the rich folks who needed the

tax cut that is exactly what he is doing.

[corarose]

23. Dana Carvey's book is coming out next and it's called

I'm a washed up actor and my book is full of shit but I wrote it anyway because I needed the bucks.

[Chomskyite]

24. The party left him in 1948

. . . and he's just now realizing the Dixiecrats walked out?

Just too funny.

[UpInArms]

25. Zell-out Miller's ACLU voting record is a "25" - lower than some

republicans -

the ratings can be found here:

http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_detail.php?sig_id=002409M

this man is a complete nincompoop (among other things)

[Philostopher]

26. News flash: "Democrats call Miller ...

A Republican." The reason he thinks Dems are 'out of touch' is because he's no longer a Democrat -- somebody want to help Zell put on his thinking cap?

[DS1]

27. In some ways he's right

We are out of touch because we think people can be influenced by logic and reason, instead of inneundo and sound-bytes. I, for one, feel this country a lost cause, and deserves what it gets.