October 18, 2004, 1:30 PM TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Former Republican Gov. William Milliken endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president on Monday, saying President Bush has pursued policies "pandering to the extreme right wing." Milliken, governor from 1969 to 1982, accused the Bush administration of rushing into the Iraq war, pushing tax cuts that benefit the rich and blocking meaningful stem-cell research. "I felt so strongly about the direction of this country that in the end, it wasn't a difficult decision to make," Milliken said in an interview Monday with Traverse City Record-Eagle reporters and editors. Milliken issued a three-page statement of his views about Bush and domestic and international issues. "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, a moderate Republican, has criticized Bush before. In August, Milliken 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 rights opponent. Link
