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American Morning

Interview with Senator Zell Miller

Aired November 04, 2003 - 08:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Presidential rivals, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry don't agree on very much but they are joining forces against a common enemy, Howard Dean. Dean is seeking the endorsement of the largest union in the AFL-CIO, the service employees international union. It has more than 1.5 million members. Strategists for Edwards, Gephardt and Kerry are discussing last minute moves to stop the union from giving Dean the nod. The union's board will decide on Thursday whether to endorse the former Vermont governor.
The Iraq situation has accelerated the political debate at home and the Democratic presidential candidates are doing their best to keep it at full throttle. But one Democrat, Senator Zell Miller of Georgia is speaking out against his party endorsing President Bush for re-election. Miller's new book is called, "The National Party No More" and in it he explains why.

Earlier this morning, I asked the Senator what he thinks is wrong with the Democratic party?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. ZELL MILLER (D), GEORGIA: I found a process that is so politicized and so polarized that you can't even put it aside in time of war. And I found a process where 59 votes out of 100 cannot pass anything because 41 votes out of 100 can defeat it. I found a system that just queezened(ph) our individual thoughts into a mushy party pudding. And then, you are expected to go along with the team even when you know the quarterback is calling the wrong signal.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at what you think of some of the men who are running to be president. Howard Dean, you say belongs to the wining wing of the Democratic party. John Kerry, you see him posing for Vogue with a surf board. Joe Lieberman, you likened to Aesop's tortoise. I'm going to assume -- although you don't write about Wesley Clark since he only recently got into the race -- that you're not a huge fan of Wesley Clark, not personally but sort of as a candidate.

Why do you think none of these men can win the presidency in '04?

MILLER: Well, the main reason is because every single one of them -- there's really not much difference between them and that's the sad thing --every single one of them are carrying the party in the wrong direction. They have catered to these narrow interest extreme liberal special interest groups who are taken and have taken the party out of the mainstream. It's no longer the party that I once knew. If you want to know how to run for president, you don't look at how McGovern did it who carried one state or how Mondale did it who carried one state. You look at how John F. Kennedy did it; he was a tax cutter. He came out very, very strong on national security. He looked stronger and appeared stronger than Richard Nixon in those debates, and that's why John Kennedy won. And when he did, he cut taxes and he stood up to the Russians and he could have been re- elected. He carried Georgia by a larger percentage of votes than he carried his home state of Massachusetts.

O'BRIEN: You write a lot about the south and sort of the getting it of the south that you think a lot of the Democratic candidates don't get and Democrats maybe northern Democrats across the board Democratic leadership do not get. You ...

MILLER: They don't understand the south.

O'BRIEN: Well, you have sort of a funny scene in the book about one of the Democratic party leaders munching on shrimp not realizing that he had to peel the shrimp first so it's sort of this crunchy meal that he's having and you know kind of poking fun there at a bunch of idiots who are not quite getting it, so is that your litmus test?

MILLER: No, not at all. I remember also talking about funny things. I remember Michael Dukakis coming to the south and I remember going to hear him speak at the rally and he had all these bales of hay, it looked like a set off Hee Haw, the old country music TV program. That's what they think of the south. What Howard Dean has had to say about the confederate flags and the pickup trucks. That's a caricature of the south, that's a stereo-type of the south. That's not the modern south.

O'BRIEN: So you think President Bush gets the south because you've said you're going to vote for him in '04.

MILLER: Well, I think it's the right man in the right place at the right time and I'm very comfortable with where he is as far as Iraq is concerned. I'm very comfortable where he is as far as tax cuts are concerned. He realizes that tax cuts are more than just giving the people back the money that they deserve. He realizes that tax cuts is a form of tax reform because if the money is not on the table then Congress can't gobble it up.

O'BRIEN: Fiscal responsibility? A $500 billion deficit?

MILLER: Well, if you want to look at fiscal responsibility, look at how John F. Kennedy did it. That is what I was talking about a while ago. He cut taxes. His taxes really were larger than the Bush tax cuts and the economy thrived. He stood up to the Russians. Look at how John F. Kennedy did it.

Look at how Bill Clinton ran. Bill Clinton ran in '92 saying, "We're going to reform welfare as we know it, and that you have to punish criminals, not explain away their behavior." He won. In 1996, he said that the era of big government is over. You can't have federal program for every problem. He won. There are blueprints out there, there are battle plans that have been tested, not that old way of doing it like Mondale and McGovern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Senator Miller said that starting with Adlai Stevenson in 1952, he's voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 4, 2003 - 08:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Presidential rivals, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry don't agree on very much but they are joining forces against a common enemy, Howard Dean. Dean is seeking the endorsement of the largest union in the AFL-CIO, the service employees international union. It has more than 1.5 million members. Strategists for Edwards, Gephardt and Kerry are discussing last minute moves to stop the union from giving Dean the nod. The union's board will decide on Thursday whether to endorse the former Vermont governor.
The Iraq situation has accelerated the political debate at home and the Democratic presidential candidates are doing their best to keep it at full throttle. But one Democrat, Senator Zell Miller of Georgia is speaking out against his party endorsing President Bush for re-election. Miller's new book is called, "The National Party No More" and in it he explains why.

Earlier this morning, I asked the Senator what he thinks is wrong with the Democratic party?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. ZELL MILLER (D), GEORGIA: I found a process that is so politicized and so polarized that you can't even put it aside in time of war. And I found a process where 59 votes out of 100 cannot pass anything because 41 votes out of 100 can defeat it. I found a system that just queezened(ph) our individual thoughts into a mushy party pudding. And then, you are expected to go along with the team even when you know the quarterback is calling the wrong signal.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at what you think of some of the men who are running to be president. Howard Dean, you say belongs to the wining wing of the Democratic party. John Kerry, you see him posing for Vogue with a surf board. Joe Lieberman, you likened to Aesop's tortoise. I'm going to assume -- although you don't write about Wesley Clark since he only recently got into the race -- that you're not a huge fan of Wesley Clark, not personally but sort of as a candidate.

Why do you think none of these men can win the presidency in '04?

MILLER: Well, the main reason is because every single one of them -- there's really not much difference between them and that's the sad thing --every single one of them are carrying the party in the wrong direction. They have catered to these narrow interest extreme liberal special interest groups who are taken and have taken the party out of the mainstream. It's no longer the party that I once knew. If you want to know how to run for president, you don't look at how McGovern did it who carried one state or how Mondale did it who carried one state. You look at how John F. Kennedy did it; he was a tax cutter. He came out very, very strong on national security. He looked stronger and appeared stronger than Richard Nixon in those debates, and that's why John Kennedy won. And when he did, he cut taxes and he stood up to the Russians and he could have been re- elected. He carried Georgia by a larger percentage of votes than he carried his home state of Massachusetts.

O'BRIEN: You write a lot about the south and sort of the getting it of the south that you think a lot of the Democratic candidates don't get and Democrats maybe northern Democrats across the board Democratic leadership do not get. You ...

MILLER: They don't understand the south.

O'BRIEN: Well, you have sort of a funny scene in the book about one of the Democratic party leaders munching on shrimp not realizing that he had to peel the shrimp first so it's sort of this crunchy meal that he's having and you know kind of poking fun there at a bunch of idiots who are not quite getting it, so is that your litmus test?

MILLER: No, not at all. I remember also talking about funny things. I remember Michael Dukakis coming to the south and I remember going to hear him speak at the rally and he had all these bales of hay, it looked like a set off Hee Haw, the old country music TV program. That's what they think of the south. What Howard Dean has had to say about the confederate flags and the pickup trucks. That's a caricature of the south, that's a stereo-type of the south. That's not the modern south.

O'BRIEN: So you think President Bush gets the south because you've said you're going to vote for him in '04.

MILLER: Well, I think it's the right man in the right place at the right time and I'm very comfortable with where he is as far as Iraq is concerned. I'm very comfortable where he is as far as tax cuts are concerned. He realizes that tax cuts are more than just giving the people back the money that they deserve. He realizes that tax cuts is a form of tax reform because if the money is not on the table then Congress can't gobble it up.

O'BRIEN: Fiscal responsibility? A $500 billion deficit?

MILLER: Well, if you want to look at fiscal responsibility, look at how John F. Kennedy did it. That is what I was talking about a while ago. He cut taxes. His taxes really were larger than the Bush tax cuts and the economy thrived. He stood up to the Russians. Look at how John F. Kennedy did it.

Look at how Bill Clinton ran. Bill Clinton ran in '92 saying, "We're going to reform welfare as we know it, and that you have to punish criminals, not explain away their behavior." He won. In 1996, he said that the era of big government is over. You can't have federal program for every problem. He won. There are blueprints out there, there are battle plans that have been tested, not that old way of doing it like Mondale and McGovern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Senator Miller said that starting with Adlai Stevenson in 1952, he's voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com