Zell Miller: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:12, 1 July 2005

Revision as of 10:14, 1 July 2005

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Although Miller was a Democrat, he was very [[conservatism|conservative]] as a U.S. Senator and was generally viewed as becoming opposed to his party. In 2004, he cosponsored a [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:SJ00040:@@@P proposed Constitutional amendment] that, if ratified, would have prohibited government, at any level, from recognizing any homosexual domestic partnerships. On Thu. Mar. 11th that year, he introduced [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.2147: legislation] that if law would have created a board of "shapers of opinions" (as he called it in his introductory speech) to advise broadcastors on content the government deemed acceptable or unacceptable, and to make automatic reappropriations 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 [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|17th Amendment]] (this would transfer the right to elect U.S. senators from the people back to the [[state legislature]]s, as the Founders originally intended, prior to the amendment).

During [[2001]] and [[2002]], when [[Liberalism in the United States|liberal]] [[U.S. Republican Party|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 [[United States Senate|Senate]] to that party. These rumors were proven false with Miller's declaration, that he was "born a Democrat and will die one." "[[As of 2005]], Miller has continued to adhered to this declaration."

In [[2003]], Miller announced that he would not seek reelection after completing his term in the Senate. He also announced that he would support [[President of the United States|President]] [[George W. Bush]] in the [[U.S. presidential election, 2004|2004 presidential election]] rather than any of the nine candidates then competing for [[U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination, 2004|his own party's nomination]], but again denied that he would become a Republican. He did not change 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 the keynote speaker at the [[2004 Republican National Convention]].