Democrat congressman bolts from Democrat party to Republican party

[jimpeel]

It seems that the rats are starting to flee the sinking ship and it took Obama less than a year to score his first defection.

SOURCE

Updated December 22, 2009
Freshman Alabama Congressman Switches Parties to Join GOPBy Chad Pergram
- FOXNews.com

Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, announced Tuesday that he's switching parties to become a Republican.

Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, announced Tuesday that he's switching parties to become a Republican.

"I have become increasingly concerned that the bills and policies pushed by the current Democratic leadership are not good for north Alabama or our nation," Griffith said during a press conference Tuesday.

"I am announcing today that I'm joining the Republican conference immediately," he said. "Our nation is at a crossroads and I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt."

Griffith, a retired oncologist and businessman, succeeded former Democratic Rep. Bud Cramer, who retired earlier this year, in a hard-fought contest for the northern Alabama seat.

Republicans thought that district would be hard for Democrats to hold without Cramer on the ballot, but Griffith defeated Republican Wayne Parker by 4 points -- 52-48 percent -- even though Republican presidential nominee John McCain won every county in the district.

Former President George W. Bush won the district by double digits in both of his races.

In Congress, Griffith joined the Blue Dogs, the coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats in the House. He voted against the health care reform bill in November.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen, blasted the decision, saying the Alabama lawmaker has failed to honor Democrats' "commitment" to him.

"House Democratic Members and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took Parker Griffith at his word and, as a result, invested a great deal in working with Alabamans to bring Mr. Griffith to Congress," Van Hollen said in a statement. "We were committed to helping Mr. Griffith deliver for his constituents and successfully helped Mr. Griffith fend off the personal attacks against him from the far right.

"Mr. Griffith, failing to honor our commitment to him, has a duty and responsibility to return to Democratic members and the DCCC the financial resources that were invested in him," he added. "His constituents will hold him accountable for failing to keep his commitments."

Griffith said he would write a check to voters who wanted a refund.

Earlier this year, Sen. Arlen Specter moved from the Republican Party to the majority Democratic Party but Griffith's party switch from the majority to the minority party is rare.

Florida Rep. Andy Ireland was elected to the House in 1980 as a Democrat when that party held control. But in 1984, Ireland switched to join the GOP and thus serve in the minority. He continued to serve until 1993, when he did not seek re-election to the House. In 1994, Rep. Michael Forbes of New York was elected as a Republican but switched to the minority Democrats in 1999. He did not receive the Democratic nomination in 2000 and lost the seat.

Griffith's thinking may not be a total surprise, however. In August, he told voters at a town hall meeting at the University of North Alabama that if given the chance he would not vote again for Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

"I would not vote for her. Someone that divisive and that polarizing cannot bring us together," he said.

Republicans in the Alabama delegation met with Griffith the middle of last week and asked him to switch and he agreed. Alabama's two U.S. senators, as well as Rep. Robert Aderholt, whose district borders Griffith's, were instrumental in helping Griffith change his mind. Senior Sen. Richard Shelby is himself a former Democrat who switched parties while in office.

"I believe his voting record and public statements on many important issues demonstrate an approach to government and spending that is incompatible with the national Democratic Party. As a Republican, he will be affirmed in his concerns about reckless spending and governmental overreach, rather than being ostracized for them," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Rep. Mike Rogers, another Alabama Republican, called the switch "a great development," and likened it to the party switch by Louisiana Rep. Rodney Alexander, who moved from the Democrats to the GOP about six years ago.

"He just could not stomach what the Democrats are doing any longer," Rogers said of Griffith's move.

Griffith's departure means the Democrats will still hold an advantage of 257 seats to the GOP's 178. But the Democratic majority is expected to shrink by at least two seats again in January. Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., and Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, are expected to resign.

Fox News' Carl Cameron contributed to this report.

 

[Gotholic]

Ah, so he leaves the Gambino's and joins the Genovese's.

 

[catocom]

=>

 

[2minkey]

wow. the example of one that indicates the start of a massive trend. the logic seems sound to me.

 

[MitchSchaft]

Bleh, they're all the same. I can't believe people still think there's a difference in parties. Now there's the true ignorance.

 

[Cerise]

To paraphrase Miss O'Hara:

"Fiddle-dee-dee, tyranny , ineptitude , fascism, I get so bored I could scream!"



Sarah Palin: Midnight Votes, Backroom Deals, and a Death Panel

Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it.

"I have become increasingly concerned that the bills and policies pushed by the current Democratic leadership are not good for north Alabama or our nation," Griffith said during a press conference Tuesday.

"I am announcing today that I'm joining the Republican conference immediately," he said. "Our nation is at a crossroads and I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt."

 

[Winky]

"I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation
that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt."

Well dang what a party pooper, not willing to tow the party line and all...

I thought those were the reasons we elected them folks!

 

[Gonz]

wow. the example of one that indicates the start of a massive trend. the logic seems sound to me.

Bring this back up next Nov 3

 

[Winky]

If you think the ballot box is going to resolve this issue
I think yer mad, you’ve gotta nuther thing coming

 

[2minkey]

nice, winkus. so, it's a blue label because it lacks the bayonet lug, right?

 

[2minkey]

Bring this back up next Nov 3

ha ha no chance we'll all be dead by then because we're DOOOOOOMED!

 

[Cerise]

In a free country, the people want to be left alone to pursue their private dreams.

They expect their politicians to take care of the street paving and dog catching, keep the burning and pillaging down to a minimum and otherwise stay out from under foot.

They don’t want someone who thinks his destiny is to take over everyone’s life and remake America in his image. And they don’t want someone who is going to drone on and on and never shut up.

They want someone to do the job they were hired for, not to try to change the definition of that job,and for them to keep their hand out of our pockets.

Stop trying to tell us how to run our lives.

Obama And His Appointees Dismantling US

President Barack Hussein Obama is proceeding to destroy America and has opened up a six-front war to do so:

1. He has a Democratic controlled Congress that is willing to rubber-stamp his wildest schemes, without even reading them…as we’ve already seen. The Democratic Party is now aiding and abetting the demeaning and destruction of America and has become the voice of leftist extremism.....

2. Mr. Obama has immense executive authority, which he has already used to damage the country. One notable example is his decision to try terrorists in New York City, thereby giving the terrorists the premier platform to broadcast their propaganda and recruit Islamic radicals to their cause. Another example is cap and trade by fiat of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rather than Congressional action.

3. He is filling the White House, the executive branch and the court system with an army of radicals, socialists, Communists, Marxists, Maoists, and America-haters. The most outrageous example was Van Jones, the avowed Communist and believer that 9/11 was an American plot fashioned by President George W. Bush...... But, don’t kid yourself – extremists like that are the rule, not the exception in Mr. Obama’s world.

4. He stands ready to commit the U.S. to radical international treaties that will bleed away American sovereignty and commit the nation to destructive policies. Watch what happens in Copenhagen, and watch the directions of Mr. Obama in matters of international laws and treaties. He has made it obvious he is more interested in pleasing the international community than in protecting the citizens of America. Couple that with his penchant for bootlicking our enemies, apologizing for America, and kicking around and betraying our allies and you have a prescription for international disaster.

5. Mr. Obama seems ready to do anything to achieve his ends, a la the formula of Saul Alinsky and his book Rules for Radicals. Alinsky believed the ends justify the means, and that means anything goes. Mr. Obama has demonstrated he is willing to lie, use fascist-style tactics to silent critics, and do what it takes to achieve his agenda. He has even expressed his disdain for the U.S. Constitution in his now infamous quote that civil rights litigation and adjudication went off track because it did not focus on redistribution. His comments, record, and policies show he believes in redistribution of wealth, and views capitalism, free markets and profit as all part of a tainted system that is unjust.

6. Finally, the mainstream media is sanitizing and covering up Mr. Obama’s worst excesses, as we’ve witnessed with major stories either ignored or almost totally neglected..... The mainstream media has become an adjunct of the Obama plan to destroy America, as we know it.

This column will focus on the wild leftist radicals that he is packing into the federal agencies and the unconstitutional czars he is filling up the White House with. I question, when America elects a president who spends over 20 years hanging around with terrorists, racists, bigots, anti-Semites, Communists, Marxists, and socialists, what kind of appointments do you think he’ll be making? And, when he packs the White House with such crazies, what kind of policies do you expect to be forthcoming?


Wake up America. We elected one of the most dangerous enemies of America and he now sits in the White House, filled with other enemies of America, relentlessly going about his task of destroying the country as we know it and as the Founding Fathers intended it. You better join the forces in opposition to Mr. Obama’s vision for America because if he continues unobstructed for three more years, it may then be too late to save it.

It’s later than you think. Mr. Obama can kill the economy and America with his version of ObamaCare standing by itself (See The Bulletin, “ObamaCare Spells Doom for America,” Dec. 6-12, and “Wake Up Before Obama Destroys America,” Dec. 13-19). And, he seems to be firing shots with machine-gun rapidity that have the potential to destroy our economy and our country. There’s some element of truth in talk show host Michael Savage’s assertion that we now have a dictatorship. With supermajorities in both houses of Congress and with seemingly inept Republican leadership, with free use of extra-Constitutional methods, i.e. czars, there seems to be no real checks and balances that should keep an out-of-control radical runaway president in check.

Even our Founders, political geniuses, still could not foresee and plan for the election to the White House of an America-hating radical, backed by supermajorities of the Democratic Party willing to follow him over the cliff to the destruction of America.

 

[jimpeel]

wow. the example of one that indicates the start of a massive trend. the logic seems sound to me.

Mmmmmayyyybeeeee ...

SOURCE

Updated December 23, 2009
Griffith Party Switch Buoys GOP, Leaves Them Looking for More Defectors

FOXNews.com

Hot on the heels of a party-switch pick-up for the GOP, aides to John McCain confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that the Arizona senator has called Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Carney and left a voicemail message.



Hot on the heels of a party-switch pick-up for the GOP, aides to John McCain confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that the Arizona senator has called Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Carney and left a voicemail message.

Carney, a former Navy man like McCain, could be susceptible to an invitation by the senator to leave the Democratic Party in favor of Republicans.

The Carney camp confirmed receipt of the McCain message though neither side will say what was contained in the voicemail.

But Carney's aides would not rule out the possibility of the congressman switching parties, an intriguing prospect for Republicans, who despite their distance to recapturing the majority, were buoyed Tuesday by the announcement from freshman Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he was leaving the Democratic Party and will caucus with the GOP.

Griffith's party switch after less than a year in office leaves Democrats with a 257-178 majority, meaning Republicans would need to pick up 40 seats in the next election in order to retake the majority.

Few Democratic strategists are worried right now that the Democratic majority is seriously in jeopardy, but they are looking at the calendar and recent polls and are taking stock.

Griffith, a retired oncologist, said Tuesday that he was no longer comfortable in the Democratic Party because the leadership is pushing an agenda focused on "massive spending, tax increases, bailouts and a health care bill that is bad for our health care system, bad for our patients and bad for our physicians."

Griffith had been one of the House's 52 fiscally conservative, so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats who range across 28 states from North Dakota to Florida, Maine to California. Most come from Republican leaning or swing districts where the Obama agenda may be unpopular enough to cost them re-election.

The GOP has targeted 30 vulnerable "Blue Dogs" plus an additional 18 non-Blue Dogs from districts where McCain beat Barack Obama in last year's election.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said pollsters may not be nervous but Blue Dogs are.

"There really are two subjects that will determine 2010, if you're looking to votes in Congress, it's the votes on the economy and the votes on health care votes, and you're going to have most of the campaigns run around those votes, particularly where Republicans are running against incumbent Democrats," Sabato said.

Forty-three Blue Dogs voted against the $154 billion jobs stimulus plan Democrats passed 217-212 last week before recessing for the Christmas break. On top of that, 22 Blue Dogs opposed the House climate change bill at the beginning of the year, and 28 voted against the House health care reform package.

"The number of Blue Dogs voting against these programs is increasing rather than decreasing because they're the first to go, and they know it, on Election Day," Sabato said.

Sabato said about 21 Blue Dogs are safe for reelection. Parker said part of the reason he switched from the majority to the minority is that liberal leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have thrown moderates under the bus.

"Leadership is out on a far left track with the administration and has left many good Democrats without a voice,' Griffith said.

Sabato agreed. "There are a lot of flattened Democrats out there with tire tracks all over them."

House Minority Leader John Boehner said he is counting on Pelosi to continue on that path in 2010.

"I hope she does a great job of marketing all the garbage they passed this past year," he said.

 

[2minkey]

there's many that can't toe the line when things get rough. they puss out toward 'conservative' and its prescriptive ideology wrapped in imaginary macho bullshit, so they can high-five other closeted pansy men and not have to think for themselves. fucking dittoheads.

and while this 'development' is interesting, your initial logic is still quite flawed.

 

[jimpeel]

There's more than one way to bolt from the party.

SOURCE

Dem recruits continue to head for exits
By Aaron Blake - 12/31/09 10:55 AM ET

Democrats have lost yet another touted recruit, this time in Kansas.

State Sen. Laura Kelly (D) just announced her withdrawal from the race to face Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.). She becomes the fifth formidable recruit to bow out in recent weeks.

“I have been forced to make a decision between honoring the pledge I made to the people in my Senate district and my firm conviction that the people of the 2nd congressional district deserve a truly independent voice in Congress," Kelly said in a statement.

“This has been a very hard decision, but it is the right one.”

Kelly joins several recent dropouts, including businessman Jack McDonald, a well-funded challenger to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) who announced last week that he wouldn't run. The others are Ohio state Rep. Todd Book, who was running against Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio); former Tennessee Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Paula Flowers, who was running for Rep. Zach Wamp's (R-Tenn.) seat; and Solana Beach City Councilman Dave Roberts, who was running against Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.).

Both McDonald and Kelly were cited in a late October memo from DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) that touted the committee's recruiting successes.

On top of that, Democrats have lost four incumbents in vulnerable districts to retirement recently. It has been a distinct shift, taking five seats off the map on offense and adding four on defense.

 

[Cerise]

The rats are stampeding to the gangplank.