He's the kingfish, the really powerful leader among all those legislators who are said by reporters to be "powerful."
He's had power for decades - policymaking power and personal power, turning back the occasional challenge of a senator who covets his job, of governors who've struggled for his help and of law enforcement authorities examining his fundraising tactics.
He has become a bulky, alabaster-haired institution. His name - Thomas V. Mike Miller - adorns the sumptuous new Senate office building along Rowe Boulevard leading to the State House.
FOR THE RECORD
A column and photo cutline on Sunday's Commentary page ("Miller backs away from backing away; what's next?") misidentified state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's jurisdiction. He represents Prince George's and Calvert counties. The Sun regrets the error.
He's also one the last men of real idiosyncratic character and color in the General Assembly. He can back-slap and guffaw with startling force, but he is also what one of his friends called a "deep," scholarly lover of history. No great student in college, he reads voraciously now and delights in bringing Maryland history to the attention of his friends.
And so when he said this four-year term would be his last, the Annapolis political world couldn't believe it - and probably never really accepted it.
Now, the Charles County Democrat says he is eager to extend his record of service for at least one more term. In the process, he may display his mastery, recanting his retirement plans early enough to ensure his return to the dark wood, crimson-toned corner office adjacent to the Senate chamber without a contest.
There were those who said he had unnecessarily throttled back his power when he announced his retirement at the beginning of this term. Now, though, he is renouncing that plan in a way that may make it unlikely, if not impossible, for a successor to amass sufficient support to challenge him.
If he were not the record-setting incumbent (having served longer than any other Senate president in the nation), he might not have the votes to win the job. But his comeback announcement found most of the contenders swearing eternal obeisance. If you set out to kill the king - or the kingfish - you have to succeed or pay the price.
Particularly if the king has second thoughts.
He regretted the retirement words the second he uttered them, according to Timothy F. Maloney, one of his friends. A resolute party man, Mr. Miller had endured four years under Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who had not applied himself to the job, in Mr. Miller's view.
When he thought of walking away, he worried, Mr. Maloney said, that other senators were feeling a bit of "Miller fatigue."
