Rating: 
Summary: Correction
Review: I have not read the book; and, thanks to the reviewers' descriptions, I'll most likely not purchase nor read it.
Hence, the neutral, 3-star rating.
A correction, though, to the first Spotlight Reviewer's comment on Senator Jeffords' switch: Jeffords is from Vermont, NOT New Hampshire. Please...give us SOME credit up here in NH.
Rating: 
Summary: I love Zell Miller, but...
Review: unlike the majority of reviewers here, I actually read the book.It's a benign read by a very nice man. And to all those reviewers who call Miller a "Republican," remember that Kennedy fought Communism and cut taxes by historic amounts (to the everlasting shame of his overflowing brother Teddy). JFK would be booted right out of today's Democratic party as the 'Republican' he was. Which tells you just how far off the deep end the Dems have jumped. Back to Zell. He tells his life story in this book, sort of establishing his Democratic Pary bona fides. Isn't it funny that at one time Democrats were allowed to be pro-life? Al Gore, Richard Gephardt, Bill Clinton, so many have had to abandon their conscience just to stay in their party's good graces when the abortion lobby took over. Miller never did. He's stayed true to his principles and finds himself almost always being dragged leftward with his party. So he's leaving politics. I think if he'd stayed governor of Georgia, he'd have a taste for it still. But to be thrown in amongst the radicals in Washington has got to be a bit of a shock for a good ol' boy. The book does not flow, though. I found myself frequently somewhere on the page, wondering how I'd gotten there and not remembering a word of what I'd just read. There are portions of this book that are memorable, that make you feel this is a good man with a sharp sense of what he believes and wants. He should have put his book through 4 or 5 more rewrites with an editor who was truly his friend. He could have sharpened and refined his message and used the autobiographical nature of the narrative to build and strengthen his case. Instead we get a collection of chapters that look as though each was written as a column and then all were collected and bound together: the Collected Works of Zell Miller. That said, I'm glad I read Miller's book. It makes me wish he had put his money where his mouth is and switched parties temporarily the day Jumpin' Jim Jeffords pulled the ol' bait and switch on the voters of New Hampshire and shifted control of the Senate to the 'selected, not elected' Democrats. Just so fairness could rule. He laments the unscrupulousness of his Democratic colleagues, but when he had the power to put a stop to it, he was MIA. Must be a Democrat after all, no matter how conservative.
Rating:
Summary: Miller: Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps
Review: In A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE, Senator Zell Miller explains his disenchantment with his own Democratic Party and why he has, over the years, sided far more with Republican values. What distinguishes Miller's book from the many other and similar screeds that lash out at the opposing side is his penchant for using homilies and folksy metaphors to indict a liberal way of life that he sees as having strayed greatly from the time-honored Democratic values of presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy. Miller opposes gun control, abortion, and the current tendency for liberals to see America as a sociological petri dish from which unwanted bedrock changes can be instituted using what he sees as a twisted reading of the Constitution. Miller spends much of his book hiking down a Georgia memory lane. He learned first hand how to go out and get the vote by meeting with innumerable country folk, most of whom are well capable of distinguishing between a hand and a hand out during troubled times. Miller's writing style matches his philosophy-an easygoing belief in the ability of his constituency to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. However, he does not do enough to probe why his belief in self-sufficiency is inherently preferable to the leftist belief that tossing money at problems is the best way to solve them. Still, A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE is a thought-provoking attempt by an admittedly old-fashioned political warrior to comprehend why this nation is fast approaching an election that will pull this nation in a direction that will be either disastrously wrong or confidently right.
Rating: 
Summary: An embarrassment not just for the Democrats...
Review: nor even just for Zell Miller himself. This book is a humiliation for anyone who had hopes that the South had really moved on from Jim Crow and the delusions of aristocracy that the political elite like Zell Miller maintain. It is a throwback to plantation days. Zell Miller demonstrates in his characteristically rabid, if not eloquent, prose that not all white trash live in trailer parks...some trash, like Miller, have apparently gotten quite well to do on the backs of the people, living high and mighty off of tax dollars, and all the while, step and fetchin' for his corporate masters.
This book, much like any mention of ol' Zell, makes me want to vomit. Don't waste even a nickel on this trash. Zell is wealthy enough.
Rating:
Summary: Acid Test Should Not Determine One's Party
Review: There has been a split in political philosophy ever since the founding of this country. One side favors limited government and is called conservative. Another side favors activist government and is called liberal. And then there are the voters, the majority of whom fall in between. Zell Miller walks the line most would support.
The major difference between the two political parties is embodied in this book. Tell me when was the last time a pro-lifer addressed the Democratic Convention? I don't think it has ever happened. The Republican Party is pro-life at least in its platform but allows pro-choicers and moderates not only to speak but to be prominent. Miller has been a keynote speaker at both, introducing Clinton in 1992 and Bush in 2004. And it is clear he knows what he's talking about.
Miller demonstrates why the Democratic Party - the national party - has never come to grips with what is going on in the South. It is not as simple as racism even though some party elders continue to play that card. Southerners as a people - and I am one myself - are suspicious of anybody who talks about an issue too much even if we concede civil disagreement with him.
Miller's plainspokenness would make him a good President. He tells exactly why he supported Bush on several issues including the appointment of Ashcroft and the war in Iraq. He doesn't play politics, he embodies representation for the people. A very good book to read to understand where the Democratic Party used to be - and where it must go again to survive.
Rating: 
Summary: Democrat Zell
Review: I can tell you this: Zell Miller is to good of a Democrat to not give his party a thrashing when it needs it.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written and pulls no punches...
Review: Zell Miller chronicles for us his dissenting views from within his own party. An easy read, the book's strength is demonstrated when Miller takes us through his political life and shows how, over time, his party's belief system has changed, and how it could return to its roots.
This was a very interesting read in light of the 2004 presidential election results. Miller seems to have been vindicated in his indictment of his party's inability to win elections, and especially in his emphasis on gaining Republican power in the South.
Though not an especially deep read, this book will bring to readers a different perspective on the importance of the South in contemporary American politics.
Rating: 
Summary: Grossly Overrated
Review: This is supposedly a condemnation of the Democratic Party and a prescription for how they can heal themselves. Instead it is more of a treatise of Zell Miller's life and philosophy. The reviewers say the Democratic Party would do well to heed his warnings but his warnings are buried somewhere in over 230 pages of remembrances. I doubt the Democratic Party would listen to his prescription but he could have done a better job articulating that prescription.
Overall a very weak and disappointing book.
Rating:
Summary: Tells is like it is
Review: I just finished Sen. Miller's book and I must say I really enjoyed it. This is a man that does indeed go with his conscience... Zell is a man of God... yes, he even admitted his regret to backing "Roe v. Wade" and other political blunders in his career.
The Democratic Party really needs to read this book... he's simply afraid the party he's been with "since birth" is going to take the route of the Whig Party... to extinction.
But, I don't think the Democrats will ever listen. They've been pandering to unions and other special interest groups for quite a while. Sure the Republicans have S.E. groups as well but the GOP SE Groups at least stay out of the limelight...
A true southerner... tells it like it is. Liberals are ashamed of him and are labeling him a "traitor" because he simply didn't back Sen. Kerry in the '04 Election. I just wish Zell would run for President in 2008... he would be one Democrat that this Republican would vote for! Way to give 'em hell, Zell!!!
Rating:
Summary: Grumpy Old Man
Review: Mr. Miller spends a long time spewing out the same old ignorant, hateful, and fear injecting stuff that so many others have been regurgitating for a long time. He uses few facts to back up his points and just seems to be a confused & grumpy old man.
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