A day late & a U.S. Senate seat short -- And for the record, James Earl will tell you being for a nothing doesn't count

This week Bill Shipp writes:

Sen. Zell Miller's unsmiling, unforgiving, squint-eyed, over-the-top vituperation against his former Democratic colleagues had an unintended consequence back in Georgia: His screed awakened state Democratic leaders. They were shocked and howling mad after his speech and, for the first time, seemed ready to fight - really fight - to maintain a beachhead at the state Capitol.
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In our post of 8-30-04 we note:

[F]olks in the other Georgia sometimes have good ideas, believe it or not.

A case in point. My neighbor in Laurens County Rep. DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) has some thoughts that in fairness to the Democratic Party ought to have gone through Sen. Miller's mind.

Rep. Porter questions why Miller didn't work within our Party to move it closer to the political middle. As Rep. Porter so eloquently puts it:

"I wish he was working more on ways to correct the Democratic Party rather than going and giving a speech at the Republican Convention," said Porter, House speaker pro tempore. "I wish he was giving that speech at the Democratic Convention."
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And as we have all read, in his letter to Sen. Miller dated 9-8-04, President Carter shared a similar thought with the Senator, observing:

Great Georgia Democrats who served in the past, including Walter George, Richard Russell, Herman Talmadge and Sam Nunn, disagreed strongly with the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and me, but they remained loyal to the party in which they gained their public office.
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And the 9-10-04 PI reports the following comments from Speaker Terry Coleman:

"I think President Carter is on track -- in that he said Richard Russell, Walter George and all these other Georgia senators had their disagreements with the national party. But they never came out and trashed the party," Coleman said Thursday."

The speaker also wished that Miller, in his speech, had acknowledged the varying shades of Democratic philosophy.

Most Georgia Democrats, Coleman said, are moderate to conservative. "I don't take offense with [what Miller said], but I wish he had been a little more descriptive of the party," the speaker said.