Zell Miller rips Washington 'bribery'

BY: JIM GALLOWAY
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

January 15, 2002 - Once upon a time, he bore the nickname "Zig-Zag." On Monday night, he all but declared himself "Give 'Em Hell Zell."

In his first major speech in Georgia since his election 14 months ago, a blunt U.S. Sen. Zell Miller said he was disgusted with the money politics, partisanship and "bribery" in Washington.

Speaking to 1,100 Georgia business leaders and many of the state's political chieftains, the Democrat warned that Americans will some day rise up "like that football crowd in Cleveland" and run both political parties off the field. His 45-minute address to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta amounted to Miller's most forceful declaration of independence yet. He "reluctantly" endorsed exploring for oil in the wilds of Alaska, condemned his own party leadership for opposing tax cuts and suggested a return of the military draft.

Miller called for a blue-ribbon panel to investigate the intelligence failures that led to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The 69-year-old Democrat praised President Bush's war-time performance as "magnificent" and declared former "magnificent" and declared former President Clinton's reaction to a 1998 attack on U.S. embassies in Africa by Muslim terrorists as "wimpy."

Miller also reflected on his earlier demand, made from the Senate floor, that the United States should "bomb the hell out of them," Miller pronounced himself satisfied with the 24 million pounds of explosives dropped on Afghanistan in the U.S. war on terrorism.

"If that's not bombing the hell out of them, I don't know what it is," he said.

Overall, the former Georgia governor did everything possible to persuade his audience that he is satisfied with his new role as Washington's contrarian Democrat, a reluctant participant in the national political machinery. Back home, polls consistently declare Miller to be Georgians' most popular politician, behind President Bush.

"The process has become so politicized and so polarized and so ingrained that we cannot even put it aside in time of war," Miller said. "One of these days someone . . . is going to get through to the American people just how really messed up it has become. And when that happens, the American people are going to rise up like that football crowd in Cleveland and run both teams off the field."

The Senate is split, with 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one Independent, and Miller has found himself heavily courted as a swing vote. In his speech Monday, he expressed frustration with Senate rules that allow 41 votes to defeat a measure.

In his critique of Washington politics, Miller was particularly hard on campaign consultants and the place money has achieved in the process. "Soft money --- big money --- from special interests to both parties controls things in a way that is nothing short of bribery," he said.

While condemning the obstructionism of his Senate colleagues, Miller defended a year of alliances with the Bush administration. Miller was the first Democratic senator to support the president's nomination of John Ashcroft for attorney general. And in Bush's first week in office, Miller joined Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) in co-sponsoring Bush's tax program.

Miller vowed to continue pushing for a capital gains tax cut. "We might as well face the fact that tax rebates, new entitlement programs and interest rate cuts --- no matter how many --- are not going cut the mustard," he said.

He said the war against terrorism has caused him to take a close look at drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he said holds the equivalent of "more than 30 years of Saudi Arabian oil imports."

"I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is essential for the future energy needs of this country," Miller said. The Senate is to take up next month an energy bill that would permit the drilling.

Miller also focused on America's response to the Sept. 11 attacks. An ex-Marine, he said he had become "disgusted" at the softness and self-indulgence of American society.

He said he was disappointed in U.S. actions after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, on the bombing in 1996 of Saudi Arabian barracks holding U.S. troops and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. "The only response we made was firing a few missiles on an empty terrorist camp," Miller said. "It was a wimpy response so totally inadequate I was ashamed."

Miller said it is time to look at the intelligence failures and diplomatic lapses that led to the attacks. He said he would co-sponsor a bill with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) to establish a panel with "far-reaching powers."

"We did this after Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President Kennedy," Miller said. "We should do it now."