Zell Miller gave the keynote address at the 1992 Democratic National Convention that nominated Bill Clinton for president. Twelve years later, he'll be speaking in a primetime slot at the Republican National Convention that will renominate George W. Bush for the presidency. In 1992, Miller was the governor of Georgia. Now, he's a retiring senator. While he switched jobs, he remains a Democrat.

Did the Democrats really expect to keep all of its factions united in nominating a man who served as Ted Kennedy's understudy, Michael Dukakis's lieutenant governor, a supporter of the Bay State's imposition of gay marriage, and a Vietnam War protestor?

Massachusetts has a national reputation as an extremely liberal state. Nominating a Bay State liberal scares moderate and conservative Democrats in Southern and Western states in the same way that nominating a right-wing Senator from say, Mississippi or South Carolina, would scare moderate and liberal Republicans in the Northeast. Liberals don't understand this because they don't exercise the ability to step out of their own shoes.

When apprised of the news of Miller's plan to speak at the Republican Convention, Congressman John Lewis called the decision of his fellow member of Georgia's congressional delegation a "shame and a disgrace." Miller, he claims, "sold his soul."

Zell Miller didn't sell out his soul or his party. By nominating a Massachusetts liberal, Zell Miller's party sold out Southern and Western Democrats who are tied in this year's election to a candidate who has a good chance to win the election, but will act as an albatross around the necks of most Southern and Western Democratic candidates.

No offence to Zell, but the wing of the democratic party that tha man belongs to is know as the DixieCrat wing. These are old men who are in the Democratic party for one reason, the Republicans freed the slaves and they're holding a grudge. Essentially they are men who have lets say "racial" feelings, and they don't belong in democratic party anyways. The Republicans took Strom Thurmund and Jessie Helms away from the democrats long ago, and the Democrats were all the better for it. Zell's just a little late to the party.