Switcheroo

A lot of talk today was about the decision by an Alabama congressman to switch parties.  What's caught a lot of people's attention is the fact that he's switching to the minority party.

That sounds like crazy talk!  Why would you switch to the minority party?  Well, you switch to the minority party when your district is pissed off at the spending and over-reaching government control being pushed by the majority party.  You switch parties when you know that you might get your butt handed to you in the next election simply because of your party affiliation. 

The Republicans  welcomed Parker Griffith to the Republican Party with open arms, but Politico remembers:

"The National Republican Congressional Committee poured in $514,000 to air ads attacking Griffith, including one that suggested he was soft on Islamic terrorism.

"And the committee raised questions about whether Griffith engaged in medical malpractice when it released decades-old documentation accusing his cancer center of underdosing patients with radiation so that he could collect more money."

That's a lot of money to spend on ads like this, only to sing a different tune a year later.

This is what's so frustrating about Republicans - they want to win so bad that they'll take anyone who wants to caucus with them regardless of what they said about them during the last election and without reviewing their full voting history.  Glenn Thrush sums it up:

"While the left is dismissing Parker Griffith as an unreliable Democrat who often sided with Republicans on big issues, one Democratic aide points out that Griffith actually voted with Speaker Nancy Pelosi 85 percent of the time.

"According to these rankings compiled by washingtonpost.com, Griffith has a higher party loyalty score than Democratic Reps. Heath Shuler (N.C.), Frank Kratovil (Md.), Glenn Nye (Va.), Harry Mitchell (Ariz.), Gene Taylor (Miss.) and Walt Minnick (Idaho)."

Yeah, Griffith voted against the most recent big bills pushed by the Democrats: cap and trade, healthcare, the final TARP bill, but he voted for Pelosi as Speaker of the House, for SCHIP, for most of the TARP spending measures, and against all of the amendments limiting spending.  He also campaigned on the fact that he is a doctor and thinks everyone should have health care coverage.

Griffith only started changing his voting after his constituents caught wind and pitched a royal fit.  He met with lots of angry voters at town hall meetings this summer and had to make a strong (new) stance against any government healthcare takeover.

Note to Republicans: it always helps to check the facts and the past history.  Anyone willing to change their "convictions" based on the latest political poll is not usually someone you want in your party long term.

On the other hand, check out Les Phillip.  He's an immigrant, former Navy pilot, Christian, and staunch social and fiscal conservative.