The conflict between presidential candidates John Edwards and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in the Democratic debate Tuesday night overshadowed questions about the North Carolina senator’s view of Georgia Sen. Zell Miller.

Media coverage of the MTV-sponsored “Rock the Vote” debate zeroed in on how Edwards, one of only two Southern candidates, challenged Dean about his desire to appeal to “guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.” But later in the debate moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN reminded Edwards of remarks he made about Miller.

“Last year on CNN you said, quote, ‘It’s absolutely critical that Democrats reach out to people like Zell Miller,’” Cooper said to Edwards. “He’s now endorsing President Bush.

“What did you do wrong?” Cooper asked, as the audience burst into laughter.

Miller has blitzed the media during the last week promoting his new book, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat. In several interviews he has announced his intention to vote for Bush next year, because he believes his party panders too much to liberal special interests.

“Well, I disagree with Zell Miller, obviously,” Edwards responded to Cooper. “I know Zell; I know him very well.

“I think Zell Miller has the wrong feeling and the wrong view of what we need to do in the South in order to be successful. I think Zell Miller, for whatever reason, has decided that the policies of George Bush are good for Southerners.”

Miller has also been asked in several interviews why, since his beliefs seem to align more with Republicans, he doesn’t switch parties.

“I compare it to living in this old house, where I have lived all of my life,” he told The Washington Times, “where it’s drafty and hard to heat, the plumbing won’t work, the commodes won’t flush, and some strangers have moved in down there in my basement and I don’t know who they are and I don’t know how to get them out.

“But I haven’t got long to live here, and it’s home…I know that’s hard to understand … but it makes sense to me, and it makes sense to my family, and it makes sense to my neighbors, and that’s all that really matters.”

In the Democratic debate, Cooper asked Edwards whether Miller speaks for all Southerners.

“Actually, I don’t believe he does,” Edwards said. “I think the people that – I grew up in a small town in rural North Carolina, about 800 or 900 people. I don’t think he speaks for the people I grew up with.”

Edwards then briefly drew from his “everyday people” stump speech, and finished his answer.

“These are the people I grew up with,” he said. “I know them very well, and I can get them in 2004.”

Paul Chesser is an associate editor at Carolina Journal.