Georgia Senator Zell Miller, the Republicans' favorite Democrat, will be speaking at the GOP convention. And it's being described in news stories (and on web logs) as something of a coup.
Miller has assumed a role in recent months akin to the late Governor John Connelly of Texas, who switched from being a Democrat to a Republican under President Richard Nixon. Only in this case Miller, who is retiring from the Senate, is not actually switching parties. In a larger sense, his status reflects the exodus over the years of many conservative Democrats to the GOP fold. Only in this case he hasn't formally left.
According to news reports, Miller will give his speech on Wednesday night of the four-day August convention in NYC. The Bush campaign's proud annoucement is expected Monday.
Needless to say, Democrats aren't exactly pleased:
- Bobby Kahn, the chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, said he wasn't surprised.
"Maybe I'll switch to the Republican Party so I can speak at the Democratic Convention and bash Bush," Kahn said. "It makes about as much sense."
Kahn was a top aide to Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, who appointed Miller to the Senate following the death of Miller's predecessor, Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell.
"I advocated his appointment," Kahn said of Miller. "He said he would be independent and he was for a while, but he hasn't been lately. He's been in lockstep with the Republicans and I don't know what's happened to him. It's really kind of sad."
Actually, the Republicans needn't be so elated and the Democrats needn't fret so much.
Miller isn't going to change significant poll numbers on this race, nor will any of his comments lambasting his party be a big revelation (but they will liven the convention up). He has had a high profile for a while now with his criticism of his party and various Democrats via his lively book, plus appearances on radio and cable talk shows.
HOWEVER, his appearance will underscrore how the Democratic party's center has shifted over the years. That Joe Lieberman is considered by many to be a conservative Democrat shows how greatly the party's center of gravity has changed.
More than anything, his speech will be a way for him and the GOP to irk the Democrats...but it won't change whatever poll results are prevailing at the time, and won't change the Bush-Kerry-Nader dynamics.
And, in the end, he'll be overshadowed by the Convention's real star -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Your thought that the Democratic Party has shifted way left is in direct contrast to conventional wisdom - and conventional reality - that, in fact, the Democratic Party has moved center. Leaning ever so slightly right.
A move I only partly like.
Lieberman is seen as a conservative only from the viewpoint that he is in lockstep with Bush on matters of War on Terror. And some of the things he has said, are galling in that they sound an awful lot like Bush et al, who have been equally sadistic on the brains of straight thinkers everywhere.
In my dreams, I imagine Zell Miller as a Dem "plant" who will viscerate the Republicans in his speech, after having lulled them into a false sense of security over the last year (and thus proving the Repub. sense of security is pretty weak after all. :) )
I nodded in agreement to every word, until the zinger last sentence made me wince a bit.
The Democrats have not just drifted left, they've galloped left with all speed ever since the end of the Clinton Presidency. On top of that, rage, resentment, paranoia, and anti-centrist rhetoric have come to define them.
It's not healthy for them, and not healthy for the country.
Your thought that the Democratic Party has shifted way left is in direct contrast to conventional wisdom - and conventional reality - that, in fact, the Democratic Party has moved center. Leaning ever so slightly right.
I ain't never smoked anything that good, Andrew. ;-)
Zell Miller has no place at that convention, *or* he has no place in the Democratic party. Possibly both. Democrats (starting with Clinton) have done far too much sleeping with the enemy as it is.
Thinks Too Much (Charles):
"I nodded in agreement to every word, until the zinger last sentence made me wince a bit."
Are you alluding to the famous Wince and Nod, one of my favorite of all bloggers and commenters here?
John,
What democratic party ?
Actually I think Andrew is onto something. Of course, no doctrinaire leftist would have spoken as Clinton did on welfare, NAFTA and a host of other topics. Thing is, it was mostly talk to the center. Kerry reveals the true face of the Democrats' base which is as socialistic as France or Belgium in sentiment. The Right/Left split is not the same on security issues as economic ones, or it wasn't. The pseudo-pacifists (no good ever came from a Republican's war) are soundly in charge of the Dems now and will drive the Zells and Joes from their midst. Sadly for them, there are far more Joes and Zells in the general electorate than they know. They are toast.