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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 27 March 2018

Late Zell Miller recalled as the 'Michelangelo' of politics

By BILL BARROW throughout Georgia as ar- marriage and in 2004, he remarkable genius to edu- Wrigley credited Miller's "re-
YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. (AP) chitect of an education backed the re-election of cation, to economic devel- markable political radar"
— A governor and sena- lottery that has financed Bush, the former Republi- opment, to helping lift up for his success in convinc-
tor, friend and counselor ing a Deep South elector-
to presidents, Zell Miller ate with a religious bent to
walked the marbled halls embrace a lottery. The key
of American power. He was tying proceeds to new
was remembered more education programs, with-
simply Monday as a "Meth- out supplanting existing
odist and Marine" whose spending. Miller’s credibil-
accomplished public life ity as a poor mountaineer
was the outgrowth of per- didn’t hurt either, a political
sonal virtues traced to his tool manifested in a distinc-
Appalachian roots. tive twang that he could
"In the art of politics, he was intensify with the emotions
Michelangelo," his former of a speech or let fly with a
aide and prominent Dem- characteristic quip.
ocratic strategist Paul Be- Among his favorites aired
gala told several hundred again Monday: “You won’t
mourners at Young Harris find average Americans on
College in Miller's home- the left or on the right. You’ll
town, where he was born find ‘em at Wal-Mart,” and,
during the Great Depres- on his cursing, “My mouth is
sion and died Friday. Miller not a prayer book.”
was 86. Miller once described
"He knew not only how his own voice as “more
to win power in elections, barbed-wired than honey-
but how to wield power in suckle,” but it helped him
office," said Begala, who In this July 13, 1992 file photo, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller waves to delegates at the Democratic to the distinction as the only
worked on the 1990 cam- Convention in New York. A family spokesperson said he died Friday, March 23, 2018. He was 86. American to deliver key-
paign for governor that (AP Photo/Joe Marquette) note addresses at both Re-
Miller won on the promise publican and Democratic
of a lottery that has perma- conventions. He pitched
nently changed Georgia's pre-kindergarten programs can president who will eu- the people that others look his friend and fellow South-
education system. for 1.6 million children cu- logize him Tuesday. down on?" Begala asked. ern governor, Bill Clinton of
Monday's funeral service mulatively, while providing Begala gave a nod to some "Because he'd been there. Arkansas, to the nation in
launched three days of HOPE college scholarships paradoxes, a "career politi- He never forgot who he 1992. Twelve years later, he
public honors for Miller, for 1.8 million more. Like cian" who campaigned was, where he came from addressed the GOP and
who served as Georgia's most white Southern politi- "like an outsider," a "deeply or who sent him." endorsed the younger Pres-
governor from 1991 to cians of his generation, he devoted Christian" who Another former aide, Steve ident Bush as the man to
1999 and U.S. senator from once opposed civil rights cursed like the Marine that Wrigley, noted that Miller, keep the nation safe.
2000 to 2005. There will be legislation, but later con- he was. But he and other despite being poor, was Recalling Miller’s explana-
a second funeral Tues- demned his own inaction eulogists Monday argued the son of two educators tion — “My family is more
day at Peachtree Road and fought, unsuccessfully, for bigger takeaways, with who taught at the local important than my party
United Methodist Church to remove Confederate a proper understanding college, where he would — Begala joked: “Which is
in Atlanta, where three for- insignia from the Georgia of Miller's formative expe- become a student, meet true, because he only had
mer presidents will speak: state flag. riences, from the abject his wife Shirley and teach one family.”
George W. Bush, Bill Clinton He is sometimes recalled poverty across the north history before entering poli- Miller never did switch par-
and Jimmy Carter. nationally as the stridently Georgia mountains to the tics. "This backdrop sparked ties. Miller’s mother, Birdie,
Afterward, Miller's remains independent Democrat death of his father just days an ambition in him to trans- died in 1980, a decade be-
will lie in state at the Geor- who late in his career ac- after his birth in a home form Georgia," said Wrig- fore he was elected gov-
gia Capitol until a state fu- cused his party of veering with no electricity or run- ley, now the chancellor of ernor, but she was invoked
neral Wednesday. left and coddling terror- ning water. Georgia's public university often Monday, including a
Miller is remembered ists; he opposed same-sex "Why did this man apply this system. lesson she gave her son.q