Zell Miller has been caught with his hand in the taxpayers' cookie jar - sort of.
When this nationally famous figure left the governor's office in 1999, he pocketed more than $60,000 in taxpayer funds earmarked for entertainment and other expenses at the Governor's Mansion, WSB-TV investigative reporter Dale Cardwell revealed last week.
Miller also picked up a check for more than $20,000 for "unused leave"-a sum to which he was not entitled as a constitutional officer, Cardwell also reported.
At first blush, such stuff may sound shockingly sleazy. Bear with us. Miller has an explanation, contained in prepared statements issued through his attorney.
Zell Miller pinched 80K, but it's okay because he didn't know it was wrong
During the Republican National Convention, Zell Miller blasted the Democratic party for 'losing its moral compass'. In countless television interviews, in his wretched book 'A National Party No More', and in public speaking engagements since the November election, Miller has decried the moral lapses of others. What we needed as a country was a return to the values that made this country great, we needed to be protected from moral decay and the excuses of those who would excuse it away, that such a spirit of was lacking in the modern version of the party of John F. Kennedy and FDR. Democrats had lost sight of this, but George W. Bush did not. So, we could not elect John Kerry, because he would allow dishonor to creep into the White House... something that George W. Bush would not do.
I have another good Christian value for Mr. Miller:
Judge not, lest ye be judged.
Since the election, we have learned that Presidential advisor Karl Rove, a man who Miller had nothing but overzealous praise for... is a traitor. Not a controversial figure. Not a member of the administration 'caught up in controversy'. A traitor who made America less safe by outing a CIA agent for cheap political payback. In no uncertain terms, Karl Rove is no better that Aldrich Ames, Jonathan Pollard, or anyone else languishing in a cell for treason. Yet, as far as any of us know, Rove still has his security clearance, and the White House, the honorable 'Christian values' White House, is standing by a traitor and helping to stonewall the public from discovering the full truth. But remember... Miller's own party, us, we couldn't be trusted with the White House because we would make the country 'less safe'. No values. Not enough honor and integrity. We wouldn't do what was right by the American people.
Zell Miller, it turns out, is not just a crank and a hypocrite, but a sticky-fingered crank and a hypocrite. While we were all blasted with contempt and reviled as people who would return 'dishonor and shame' to the people's house by putting someone there who 'wouldn't keep the American people safe' by going forward in the spirit of Bush's 'Christian Values', Miller was basking in a completely undeserved light for even more reasons that we knew then. Placing himself up on a high mount as a beacon of what a leader should be. A man willing to put principle before party. A man willing to risk scorn by standing up 'for what was right because of his moral clarity and Christian values'. A lousy thief who picked the pocket of the people of Georgia and got away with it for several years, stoking the flames of his own mythology.
We will never know how many people's lives could have been saved by a case 'Joe Wilson's wife' could have cracked. But that isn't really what makes it treason. The treason is that Rove knew it would hurt the national security of the country... and did it anyway. We will have no way of ever knowing how many lives might have been saved with cooler and wiser heads in the People's White House. As far as Mr. Rove is concerned, or CoinGate, or DeLay, or 'the Duke' in California, nor even where criminal enablers like Mr. Miller are concerned... 2006 is a fumigation tour for the Democratic party. We are running against corruption and abuse of power on a national scale. The Democratic party is a national party no more, how about the Grand Ol' Party is a principled party no more?
There needs to be a public reckoning on the corruption in the GOP and its pathetic enablers.
There also is delicious irony and a bit of sad history worth considering here.
Throughout much of his political career, Miller claimed as his role model Georgia Gov. E. D. Rivers (1937-1941), an ardent New Dealer who introduced an impoverished Georgia to free schoolbooks, a nine-month school year and an improved public welfare system.
Alas, Rivers' achievements were eclipsed after he left office by what Miller once termed "vicious stories" of corruption that riddled his tenure. The wrongdoing involved prison pardons, paving contracts and allegedly swiping stuff from the old Mansion. During his 1991-1999 administration, Miller repeatedly cautioned his inner circle, "Rivers was a great governor, but I don't want to be remembered like he was."
Of course, reports on Miller, so far, are not nearly as serious as the accusations against Rivers. However, the beginnings of the parallels are obvious.
Supporters of Gov. Eugene Talmadge, once an ally of Rivers, lit the flames of controversy that wiped out the reputation of "Bow-Tie Eddie." One wonders whether some of Miller's fellow Democrats, tired of his invective and "decency" sermons, have not set out to do the same to Zell.
Word has it, there's much more to come.
Much more to come? I have had enough already... get him fit for a good old fashioned god fearing American values... trial in a court of law. With DeLay, the Duke, Rove, and the rest of 'em. They all deserve to be in the same pokey together.
I doubt this will be a big story. But before anyone in the national media is tempted to dismiss this potential new-old Miller corruption story, or downplay it because it happened in 1999 and is 'old news' think of it this way... If you happened to aquire 60 to 80K the way 'We're Goin' to Hell' Zell did... would you get a mulligan? Would you be allowed to give some of it back? There are people in prison for 20 years to life in Georgia for pinching 10k. I have no doubt that most of the news media will forget all about Zell and his foibles... but I won't.
He, and everything that he stood for and with, helped bring us the mess we are wading through today on a silver platter and a book tour. No wonder the GOP loved him so much.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign:
Vote Democratic in 2006.
Why? Look very carefully at the GOP.
It's the corruption, dishonor, and sleaze, stupid.