TRAVERSE CITY -- In 2000, six days before Michigan's Republican primary, ex-Gov. William G. Milliken endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain, who defeated eventual nominee George W. Bush by more than 100,000 votes.
On Thursday, six days before Tuesday's primary, Milliken again endorsed McCain, praising "his straight talk and service to the country."
Milliken disclosed his endorsement before a call McCain made from South Carolina to Milliken's home in Traverse City, where McCain plans an 8:15 a.m. Tuesday get-out-the-vote rally at Northwestern Michigan College's Hagerty Center.
Milliken will be out of the state that day and already has cast an absentee ballot for McCain, who also visited Traverse City at the end of his 2000 campaign.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who needs a victory in his home state of Michigan after failing to win in Iowa and New Hampshire, met with Milliken after a Hagerty Center rally last year.
From 1963-69, Milliken was lieutenant governor under Gov. George Romney, father of Mitt.
Milliken said Tuesday: "I have long admired Senator McCain for his straight talk and service to the country. There's a real sense of integrity in the firm positions he takes, even though they are not always popular. I don't agree with him on all issues, but I like his well-earned reputation of saying what he means, and meaning what he says."
That, said Milliken, is a quality he did not always see on the political scene during his own decades of public service, or on presidential campaigns then and since.
Milliken applauded McCain's position on such issues as campaign finance reform, efforts to block pork barrel projects, and promote environmental protection, including opposition to diversion of Great Lakes water.
Milliken is on the advisory council of Republicans for Environmental Protection, which has endorsed McCain.
Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, who traveled with McCain during the candidate's Michigan downstate appearances Wednesday and arranged the McCain-Milliken phone conversation, said, "it is great for McCain to have the support of Michigan's longest-serving governor."
Yob said McCain in the conversation, referring to Milliken's 2000 endorsement, quipped: "Well, it worked last time."
Milliken's 2000 endorsement was made jointly with James Brickley of Traverse City, the late former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and lieutenant governor with Milliken and a fellow moderate from days of yore.
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