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| Zell Miller blasts Kerry at rally | |||
| 2004-03-24 | |||
| The Bush-Cheney campaign Wednesday unleashed its most famous Democratic booster, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, to make the case that presidential candidate John Kerry advocates policies inconsistent with some of history's most popular Democratic presidents. Miller, a Georgian who is the lone Democratic senator to back publicly President Bush's re-election bid, criticized Kerry in a speech announcing his leadership of a national "Democrats for Bush" effort. He was joined by a handful of lesser-known Democrats, but the campaign said it would release a more comprehensive list in the coming weeks. The popular former governor cited the policies of Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy and Harry S. Truman while contending that Kerry, not Bush, is outside the mainstream on issues ranging from tax cuts to war. "John F. Kerry has the same initials as John F. Kennedy," Miller said, "but he has a far, far different view of what the government can do to help families prosper. John Kerry's spending and tax plan would stifle our economy and stall our recovery at the worst possible time." Miller was an original sponsor of Bush's proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut, which Congress trimmed to $1.3 trillion. He argued that it represented a smaller proportion of the American economy and benefited poor Americans even more than one enacted under Kennedy in the 1960s. As for the war in Iraq, Miller praised Kerry, D-Mass., for his Senate vote to authorize force. However, he said Kerry later opposed an $87 billion package to further fund the effort after "spending too much time around Howard Dean," the former candidate and outspoken war critic. Miller also criticized Kerry's view that more diplomatic channels should have been explored through the United Nations before moving almost unilaterally. "I cannot imagine the great Democratic Party leaders of past generations waiting with their hands in their pockets while a bunch of dithering diplomats decided the future of the world," Miller said. "That is the worst kind of indecisiveness. That is the wrong kind of leadership at this critical moment in our history."
Kerry campaign officials didn't immediately return calls for comment Wednesday.
Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot, a former Montana governor, said the campaign would use Miller often on the trail, particularly to rally fellow Democrats to the cause. Miller urged Democratic Bush-backers to find at least five others they could persuade to support the president. "It'll be easy to recruit Democrats in Florida," said the state's former Democratic governor, Wayne Mixson, who joined Miller on a conference call Wednesday. "I was with a bunch of business people yesterday, and I've already got my quota if that's all you want me to get." Miller, who is retiring when his term ends in January, has by far the Senate's most conservative voting record among Democrats. He has backed the president on virtually every key issue and recently published a best-selling book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat."
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 I don't know that there was an actual "trade" that went on... Jumping Jim helped kill God-knows-how-many votes in the Senate in favor of the Dims and was a faux poster boy as the "conscience of the Senate" (i.e. Liberal Useful Idiot)--Oh, yeah, Jim had principles. Zell, bless his heart, didn't "come out" as a Bush supporter and old-style populist Conservative Democrat until this year--the end of his term, whereas Jumping Jim was elected in 2000 as a Republican, not as an "Independent"(Democrat by default) and "defected" from the GOP right after his election. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-03-24 6:35:53 PM |
| #3 McCain craves press attention, but at the end of the day I think he's too decent to ever join the Donks. The trade was Jim Jeffords for Zell Miller. The Reps made out like bandits on that deal. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-03-24 6:01:23 PM |
| #2 Reps get Zell Miller, Dems get John McCain. We're even. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H 2004-03-24 5:03:23 PM |
| #1 Oooooh! "Dithering Diplomats" goes in there along with "Nattering Nabobs" and "Blithering Boobs"... |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-03-24 3:54:30 PM |