Reply #5: Former governor of Georgia (D)

[CBHagman]

He came to the Senate to fill Senator Paul Coverdell's (R) seat when the latter died in office.

Miller has since proved to be a DINO, Democrat in name only, siding with the Bush administration on most policy issues and harshly criticizing his own party as being out of touch with the country ("A National Party No More" is Miller's recent book).

However, even Miller can't countenance some of the slimier activities of the GOP, such as the truly vicious attacks on Max Cleland, who was defeated in a bid for reelection to the Senate in 2002. Cleland's opponent, then-Rep. Saxby Chambliss, ran ads questioning Cleland's patriotism. The reason? Cleland didn't support the Bush administration's preferred bill for the creation of a Department of Homeland Security. Mind you, Bush had openly OPPOSED the creation of DHS at first, then insisted that its employees have less power (e.g., collective bargaining and the like) than other federal employees.

On edit: I forgot to mention that Cleland was a decorated veteran who had lost three limbs in an accident in Vietnam. Chambliss, hawkish as a politician, received deferments and did not serve.

Miller did make an ad for Cleland to rebut Chambliss's attacks, but the latter still won the race, though in such a manner that he's surely won his own personal ring of hell as well. (Sizzle and fry, Saxby)

Anyway, Miller is planning to retire from the Senate, so I have no sense that he even slightly has his finger on the political pulse of the country. He's earned a lot of enemies in the Democratic Party, at any rate, for having bought into the Bush line on nearly everything.