Miller pans Obama's Guantanamo plan

ATLANTA - Former U.S. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia called President Barack Obama's decision to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay ``nuts'' Thursday and said it would risk the lives of civilians while giving terrorists new freedoms.

The Georgia Democrat told a gathering of more than 1,000 lawmakers at the American Legislative Exchange Council that Obama's effort to close the prison would ``treat the terrorists as they were a run of the mill criminal instead of what they really are.''

He drew more applause from the mostly Republican legislators who packed a downtown Atlanta hotel ballroom when he said Obama needed to spend more time in Washington and less time traveling abroad.

``Our globe-trotting president needs to stop and take a break and quit gallivanting around,'' Miller said, adding that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel needs to put ``Gorilla Glue'' on his chair to keep him in the Oval Office.

Two black leaders who know Miller well said they were not offended by the remark. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a civil rights leader, noted the glue is a brand-name. ``I ignore it,'' he said. ``I consider the source and go about my business.''

Democratic State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, who leads the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, said he wasn't offended by Miller's comment, but said it came a few years too late.

``It would have been much more appropriate that he suggest that Karl Rove used some Gorilla Glue on George Bush and Dick Cheney,'' said the Atlanta Democrat.
Miller, a former two-term governor in Georgia, won praise from the state's black leaders during his tenure for appointing minorities to high-ranking positions, including his naming of Leah Ward Sears to the state Supreme Court. She later became the first black female to serve as chief judge of any state's top court.

It wasn't the first time Miller has bashed his party's leaders. He earned the ire of his fellow Democrats when he took the podium at the 2004 Republican National Convention and gave a fiery speech that accused his party of being soft on national security.

Miller's remarks Thursday were among his first public comments since Obama took office. The mostly Republican legislators cheered when he compared the $787 billion economic stimulus package to a starlet's shopping spree.

``Today we are spending like Paris Hilton, regulating like we're Ralph Nader, nationalizing like we're Hugo Chavez, printing money like we are the Weimar Republic, and taxing like we're the Democratic Congress,'' he said in a rapid-fire speech.

The 76-year-old reserved some of the harshest words, however, for Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo facility. Obama has vowed to close the prison in Cuba, but critics say it could threaten the nation's security.

``Think about it: Today the presumption of innocence for the average American traveler has been lost,'' said Miller. ``And yet while we lose more and more of our daily freedoms, the cause of our loss the terrorists gains new freedoms through President Obama's dangerous sense of justice.''