What to say about Zell Miller

...?

Right off the bat, I guess

I'd have to say I'm here to praise him, not to bury him like some in the

Democratic Party have suggested of late.

All the buzz is about whether

he'll change parties. Longtime Republican operative Matt Towery in effect

outed Miller last week in his political newsletter. The former

party official (now commentator) wrote that Miller will resign next year

and run for his seat in a special election, as a Republican.

Miller says no, "not at

this time," with all the conviction of a reformed alcoholic saying,

"Well, maybe one, just to be social." He seems to be testing

the waters, waiting to see the polls.

Or is he simply using the situation

to get more publicity aimed at making him appear conservative in this

increasingly conservative state?

But, as I said, I'm here to

praise him.

After all, the junior senator

from Georgia has turned out to be my kind of Democrat, supporting the

president's tax cut proposal and all.

Last week, he announced that

he and the senior senator, fellow Democrat Max Cleland, are now on the

same page. The spin he put on the announcement is that Cleland has come

into the fold and is now supporting a bipartisan deal on the budget and

tax cut, like Miller.

If you follow that spin all

the way around to the conclusion, just the opposite is true. You have

to pay attention to the numbers.

First number: Bush proposed

$1.6 trillion in tax cuts over the next ten years, and that plan passed

the House with hardly a peep of resistance.

Then in the Senate, two Republicans

joined the entire Democratic Party except Miller in passing a greatly

reduced version of the tax cut, $1.2 trillion.

Amazingly, Democrats are able

to maintain completely straight poker faces as they refer to a plan supported

If you focus on what's being

said in the electronic media, you'll notice that the Democratic proposal

is always labeled "bipartisan," whereas the ideas proposed by

Republicans are labeled just that, "Republican." So when you

hear bipartisan, translate it to Democratic.

Anyway, the bipartisan agreement

that has Cleland and Miller reconciled calls for $1.25 trillion in tax

cuts. That sounds like a compromise, but it's much closer to the original

bipartisan proposal than to the original Bush proposal.

And it should be noted that

we get only $100 billion in tax relief over the next two years, guaranteeing

that the cuts will have minimal effect on the slippage we're seeing in

the economy.

The economy won't get the help

it needs, and of course if it continues to slip, Bush's chances for reelection

don't look so good. But far be it from me to suggest that Miller and Cleland

and the rest of the Democratic Party are actually hoping for that result,

or even conspiring to bring it about.

So is Miller really a conservative

at heart who has angered his party and might switch, or is he a shill

for a shell game designed to trash the economy while making him appear

conservative so his party will regain power?

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I continue to praise

him.