The philosophical roots of Miller's convictions -- self-reliance and giving others the chances he never had -- apparently grew out of the Appalachian hollow where he grew up.
His father died 17 days after Miller was born. His mother, Birdie, built the family's small stone house with rocks she plucked from a nearby creek. The Millers raised chickens in a corner of the living room, and managed without indoor plumbing until after Zell left for college. The senator still lives in the house, in the mountain hamlet of Young Harris. Obviously, much has changed; for one thing, the old dirt road is now Route 76, a busy, multilane highway that bears Miller's name.
He is widely revered in Georgia, the way politicians often are once they quit running. But Miller served a long, not always easy apprenticeship in state government, including 16 years as lieutenant governor before winning the top job in 1990. There were several losing campaigns along the way, including a hapless 1980 bid for U.S. Senate, and enough shifting around on positions to acquire the dubious nickname "Zigzag Zell."
"He's very good at reading where the public is at any moment in time and being able to trim his sails to the winds," said Rusty Paul, a former Georgia Republican Party chairman, who nonetheless welcomes Miller's switch to Bush without questioning its sincerity. "I think he genuinely does believe the national Democratic Party has strayed from its roots," Paul said.
But now it is Miller, for a change, who accuses his political opponent of slip-sliding around, suggesting Kerry's moderation in the presidential race is little more than a masquerade. (He waves off his lavish praise of the Massachusetts senator just a few years ago at a Democratic dinner in Atlanta, suggesting Kerry just happened to give a very good, patriotic speech that night.) "He hasn't got a trace of DLC in his DNA," Miller scoffs, referring to the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group that has embraced Kerry's candidacy.
Miller acknowledges his own views have changed over time, including a relatively recent turn against legalized abortion. "I hope I have grown," the senator says. "Surely to God I'm not the same person that grew up in that small little mountain village.... Of course my views have changed over the years. And America has changed over the years."
Asked the difference between his evolution and the transformation he sees Kerry attempting, Miller's gray eyes grow cold and his voice tightens. "I'm not running for anything," he replies.
