Zell Miller Totally Explained

Everything about Zell Miller totally explained

Zell Bryan Miller (born February 24, 1932) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. Elected as a Democrat, Miller served as Mayor of Young Harris, Georgia, state representative, 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 didn't 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. His father died when Miller was an infant, and the future politician was raised by his widowed mother. As a child, Miller lived both in Young Harris and Atlanta. Today, Miller lives in the old Young Harris home. 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. Upon his release, Miller enlisted in the Marines. During his three years in the United States Marine Corps, Miller attained the rank of sergeant. He often refers to the value of his experience in the Marine Corps in his writing and stump speeches; he wrote a book on the subject, entitled Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marines. "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've followed ever since," he wrote.
In addition to his political offices, Miller has taught political science and history 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. In 1980, Miller unsuccessfully challenged Herman Talmadge in the Democratic primary for his seat in the United States Senate.

Governor

Miller was elected governor of Georgia in 1990, defeating Republican Johnny Isakson (who later became his successor as U.S. 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 later ran for and won reelection. James Carville was Miller's campaign manager.
In 1991, Miller endorsed Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas for President of the United States. 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. In two oft-recalled lines, Miller said that President George H. W. Bush "just doesn't get it," and remarked of Vice President Dan Quayle, "Not all of us can be born rich, handsome, and lucky, and that's why we've 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

. HOPE won praise from national Democratic leaders. The HOPE Scholarship program still to this day provides Georgia students with an opportunity to attend a public college or university, who otherwise may have no opportunity to do so.
   Miller's biggest election battle came in 1994. In 1992, he became the first Georgia governor to openly proclaim a desire to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the Flag of Georgia. He sponsored legislation to change the flag at the 1993 session of the Georgia General Assembly, but the legislature, perhaps influenced by polls showing support for retaining the flag, enacted no changes. Miller dropped the issue, but in the election that followed, his Republican rival, Guy Millner used the flag issue against him, arguing it proved he was out of touch with Georgians. Miller won re-election, but narrowly.
   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. One cited piece of evidence is that in the late 1990s through the early 2000s, he gradually shifted from being pro-choice to pro-life.
   While governor, he established a special office to promote the use of Facilitated Communications in the schools of Georgia. 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 of 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. Senate seat following the death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell in July 2000. While the Democratic Party's historic control of Georgia politics had waned for years, Miller remained popular. 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.
   Through out 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's 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. These rumors were dispelled with Miller's declaration that he was "born a Democrat and will die one."
   In 2002, Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) was involved in a contentious re-election campaign against Republican Congressman Saxby Chambliss. The race galvanized Democrats across the nation, who said Chambliss had questioned the patriotism of Cleland, a disabled Vietnam veteran. (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 wouldn't seek re-election after completing his term in the Senate. He also announced that he'd support President George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election rather than any of the nine candidates then competing for his own party's nomination. He maintained this position after fellow Senator John Kerry became the Democratic nominee, and Miller, who had been a keynote speaker at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, was subsequently announced to be a keynote speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
   In 2004, he cosponsored a proposed Constitutional amendment that, if ratified, would have prohibited government, at any level, from recognizing any homosexual domestic partnerships. 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. Later that year, he proposed a Constitutional amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment (this would transfer the right to elect U.S. 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 was the first Democrat in the Senate to publicly declare his support for the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, a broad-based tax cut which was criticised by opponents for favoring the rich and being fiscally irresponsible. Miller was the only Democrat to vote against an amendment to that same bill submitted by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to scale back portions of that tax cut in order to spend more on education and debt reduction. 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 doesn't stand for the same ideals that it did in the era of John F. Kennedy. He argued that the Democratic Party, as it now stands, is a far-left-wing party that's out of touch with the America of today and that the Republican Party now embraces the conservative Democratic ideals that he's 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. In Miller's view the provisions of the bill, limiting donations to candidates for political office, should have gone even further. Miller voted with every single Democratic Senator for the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, and later he voted with virtually all fellow Democrats to allow American consumers to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. This bill was strongly opposed by American pharmaceutical companies. 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. Democratic Congresswoman Denise Majette sought to fill Miller's Senate seat, but lost the election to Republican Johnny Isakson. 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. He said, "No pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two senators from Massachusetts — Ted Kennedy and John Kerry." He also criticized John Kerry's Senate voting record, claiming that Kerry's votes against bills for defense and weapon systems indicated support for weakening U.S. military strength.
The speech was well received by the convention attendees, especially the Georgia delegates. Conservative commentator Michael Barone compared the speech to the views and ideology of Andrew Jackson.
   Miller's combative reaction to post-speech media interviews received almost as much attention as the speech itself. 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'd misinterpreted the context and full content of Kerry's votes.
   Shortly thereafter, Miller appeared in an interview with Chris Matthews on the MSNBC show Hardball. Here, Miller became visibly angry. Matthews attacked 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'd 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. He in recent years hasn't supported Democrats for election, and has said he wouldn't support Senators Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Presidential election.

Justice Sunday II

Miller was a speaker at "Justice Sunday II," an event organized by conservative Christian evangelicals to combat perceived liberal bias in the Federal Judiciary of the United States. 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's ready to discard like an outdated hula hoop the universal institution of marriage between a man and a woman."

Quotations

"I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel." — To Chris Matthews on Hardball after his speech at the 2004 RNC.
   "My mouth ain't no prayer book."
   "I’m southern born, and southern bred, and when I die, I’ll be southern dead." — Following death of former Democratic Georgia state House Speaker Tom Murphy in December 2007.
   "I've never seen a poor man who gave a rich man a job but I've seen plenty of rich men that gave poor men jobs." — October 5 2006 in Salt Lake City on tax cuts for the rich being beneficial.
   "Teachers' unions support gay rights." — October 5 2006 in Salt Lake City
   "I found a den of copperheads under my porch and I found the nearest hoe and killed them all. Those copperheads were threatening my home and my family and that's just what we need to do to the terrorists... just like those copperheads I'd just cut their heads off and kill them, dead. Just like that." — October 5 2006 in Salt Lake City on the war in Iraq.
   "How could this great land of plenty produce too few people in the last 30 years?” Miller asked in March 2007 during a fund-raiser in Macon, Georgia, for Sav-A-Life Care Center, a crisis pregnancy center. "Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We’re too few because too many of our babies have been killed. Over 45 million since Roe v. Wade in 1973.” "If those 45 million children had lived, today they'd be defending our country, they'd be filling our jobs, they'd be paying into Social Security. Still, we watch as 3,700 babies are killed every single day in America. It is unbelievable that a nation under God would allow this.”
   "I say bomb the hell out of them. If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to be expendable." — Speech on Senate floor shorty after attacks against U.S. on September 11, 2001.
   "Lyndon Johnson is a Southerner who sold his birthright for a mess of dark pottage." — During his 1964 Congressional race.
   "If the education President gets another term, even our children won't be able to spell potato.
   "If the law and order President gets another term, the criminals will run wild because our Commander-in-Chief talks like Dirty Harry but acts like Barney Fife.
   "If the environmental President gets another term, the fish he'll catch off of Kennebunkport will have three eyes. And folks after January, George Bush is gonna have plenty of time to go fishin'." — On George H.W. Bush at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.(External Link

) "We've got a race between an aristocrat, an autocrat, and a democrat [applause]. I know who I'm for." — On the three Presidential candidates, at the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

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. Allen
2003: ISBN 0-9745376-1-6
2003: foreword to What'll Ya Have: A History of the Varsity by Dick Parker
2005: A Deficit Of Decency ISBN 0-9745376-3-2

About Zell Miller:

1998: "Listen to this Voice" Selected Speeches of Governor Zell Miller

1999: Zell, The Governor Who Gave Georgia HOPE by Richard Hyatt

1999: Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: The Miller RecordFurther Information

Get more info on 'Zell Miller'.

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