Former GOP Governor Milliken endorses Kerry for president
October 18, 2004, 5:47 PM
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Former Republican Gov. William Milliken endorsed Democrat John Kerry on Monday, saying President Bush has pursued policies "pandering to the extreme right wing."
Milliken, Michigan's governor from 1969 through 1982, accused the Bush administration of rushing into the Iraq war, pushing tax cuts that benefit the rich and blocking meaningful stem-cell research.
Milliken, a moderate Republican, issued a statement to the Traverse City Record-Eagle blasting Bush for allegedly abandoning traditional GOP values.
"This president has pursued policies pandering to the extreme right wing across a wide variety of issues and has exacerbated the polarization and the strident, uncivil tone of much of what passes for political discourse in this country today," he said in the statement.
Milliken criticized Bush's positions on the environment, gun control, affirmative action, defense, medical research, women's rights, civil liberties, religion and the economy.
"My Republican Party has always been a party that stood for fiscal responsibility. Today, under George W. Bush, we have the largest deficit in the history of our country -- a deficit that jeopardizes economic growth that is so desperately needed in a nation that has lost 2.6 million jobs since he took office," Milliken said.
The Bush campaign dismissed Milliken's stance, saying he led under different circumstances during the 1970s and early 1980s.
"We didn't have the threat from terrorists who want to kill us," said John Truscott, a spokesman for the Bush campaign. "We didn't have the same kind of war going on. This election and these times demand a strong leader who's decisive and who will tell the truth."
Truscott said the Kerry endorsement is not surprising because Milliken "has been against the mainstream Republican Party for a long time."
Kerry said he was honored to get Milliken's endorsement.
"I know Gov. Milliken is treasured throughout the state for his integrity, leadership and concern for the needs of Michigan's families," Kerry said in a statement. "Working together, we can create a fresh start for America."
Milliken has criticized Bush in the past.
In August, he said the GOP has abandoned the middle to take on socially divisive issues such as gay marriage, flag burning and the push to ban the procedure known to doctors as intact dilation and extraction, but called partial-birth abortion by abortion opponents.
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