Democrat Senator Zell Miller describes “How the Democrats Destroyed Themselves”

Washington Times ^

[truthfinder9]

This is an exclusive excerpts from Sen. Zell Miller's new book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" (Stroud & Hall, Atlanta).

Lord, those current presidential candidates in my party. They are good, smart and able folks, but if I decided to follow any one of them down their road, I'd have to keep my left-turn signal blinking and burning brightly all the way. All left turns may work on the racetrack, but it is pulling our Democratic Party in a dangerous direction. Whenever the Democratic candidates encounter a political action committee, they preen and flex their six-pack abs for these special-interest groups, which I call "the Groups," like bodybuilders in a Mr. Universe contest. Or perhaps more appropriately I should compare them to streetwalkers in skimpy halters and hot pants, plying their age-old trade for the fat wallets on K Street. Just look at them. They are convinced most Americans will like what they see: John Edwards, shooting brightly through the skies like Halley's Comet. Joe Lieberman, steadily and surely plodding along, one labored step at a time, like Aesop's tortoise. John Kerry, the new century's Abraham Lincoln, posing for Vogue in an electric-blue wet suit with a surfboard tucked up under his arm like a rail just split. It made me wonder, are there more surfboards or shotguns in America? There's also Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont. Clever and glib, but deep this Vermont pond is not. ... He likes to say he belongs to the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, but I say he belongs to the whining wing of the Democratic Party. My fellow Senate Democrats are decent, hardworking and smart. They have been friendly and more than fair to me since I arrived in July 2000, even with my rough edges and strong opinions. Let that be underlined: They have been much nicer to me than I have either deserved or expected. But let this also be clear: I will not be bland in what I write, for I am not blind to what I see. What I saw gradually drew back the curtain on Washington's political stage, and over time my awe turned to shock. A partisan prism I began to refer to the Tuesday luncheon meetings of the Senate's Democratic caucus as the "Tums-days" lunches, because the ideology moved further and further to the left and the oratory was turned up to a decibel level that got so shrill for my old ears that I needed Tylenol to go along with my antacid. "The Groups" and money. Money and "the Groups." It was like a bad song you can't get out of your mind. Once we were urged over and over to attend a fund-raising breakfast because a big labor union was going to give the party $20,000 for every senator in attendance. All 50 of us answering "present" could mean a million dollars. Of course, I attended. But I began to think that the Democratic caucus sees the entire nation through the partisan prism of liberal states like California, New York, Maryland and Massachusetts, and believes that what is good Democratic politics there just has to be good Democratic politics from sea to shining sea. I naturally see the nation through the conservative prism of Georgia and the South, but I would never suggest that what was good Democratic politics in my neck of the woods would play well in Malibu and Manhattan. When "the Groups" say "frog," each party jumps. It really doesn't seem to matter how it affects the people or the nation as a whole. My yardstick says the Democrats clearly win the vertical leap when "frog" is yelled by NARAL Pro-Choice America or by AFSCME (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) with their 7.4 million members. If you are organized and have an acronym, an address inside the Beltway and a PAC, you are in like Flynn. Just name your wish, and one of the caucuses will bust a gut to romance you. If you are only an individual with some rural route address, then forget it, Bubba. The politicians won't even blow you a kiss, much less romance you. I was sitting at my beautiful old mahogany desk in the Senate chamber not long after I arrived

[Lexinom]

This is good stuff. Thanks!

These excerpts can be found HERE.

[Clintonfatigued]

Very well-stated. Sen. Miller's prediction that the 'Rats were courting disaster with their union politics handling of the Homeland Security Department turned out to be SO prophetic.

[jagrmeister]

I haven't always been a Republican. I see in Miller's disillusionment with the Democrat party the same digust with the intransigence and pettiness that I had with them. My approach to politics is reform through new ideas. Only Republicans operate on that philosophy.