Democrat to speak at GOP's gathering

Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, the highest profile Democrat to endorse President Bush for re-election, will speak at the Republican National Convention later this summer, the Associated Press reported Friday, quoting an unnamed congressional aide.

Miller drew a sharp rebuke from the dean of the state's congressional delegation, Democratic Rep. John Lewis, who called the senator's decision "a shame and a disgrace."

According to the aide, Miller will give his address on the third night of the four-day convention in New York that begins Aug. 30. The Bush-Cheney campaign was expected to make an announcement Monday, the aide said.

The speech by Miller, a former two-term governor, comes 12 years after he delivered the keynote address for Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, also in New York.

Miller, retiring in January, has voted with Republicans more often than his own party and has been a key sponsor of many of Bush's top legislative priorities, including his tax cuts and education plan.

In May, Miller spoke at the Georgia Republican convention and criticized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as an "out-of-touch, ultraliberal from Taxachusetts."

In 2001, Miller had told a Georgia Democratic Party gathering that Kerry was "an authentic" hero who had worked to strengthen the military.

Miller's recent book, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, is a national bestseller.

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