This sentence from The New Yorker annoys me:
Senator Zell Miller, the maverick Georgia Democrat, endorsed [Ohio secretary of state Ken] Blackwell for governor.
Can journalists please stop calling Zell Miller a Democrat? "Maverick" is a weasel word. Miller gave the keynote address at the 2004 Republican convention endorsing George W. Bush (where he made a number of misleading claims about John Kerry and suggested that Democratic criticism of Bush helps terrorists); backs Blackwell, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor; and has also endorsed Sonny Perdue, the Republican governor of Georgia.
The term "maverick," which also the AP recently used to describe Miller, simply does not do justice to his current views. It's the same word the press uses to describe John McCain, the so-called "maverick Republican" who is a conventional conservative on most issues and strongly backed Bush's re-election. There's just no comparison between them.
Comments