Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus

Parker Griffith defects

Remember not-so-long-ago when Rep. Parker Griffith was ducking Town Hall meetings and public exposure?

Politico just broke the story about Parker Griffith’s party swap and it’s dominating the tubes at the moment: “POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican.”

Here’s WVNN’s Dale Jackson on the topic:

I hope this is true because he is going to get killed in the primary and he will be gone.

Any GOP organization that does not repudiate him immediately will lose my support.

You can not imply a guy a murderer and a man of no integrity and then open your arms.

With Mo Brooks, the front runner, and Les Phillip both staking out solid conservative positions I don’t see how a guy like Parker Griffith, who voted for Pelosi as Speaker and with her a majority of the time, has a prayer in a GOP primary in 2010.

This makes Griffith a dead man walking.

Erick Erickson/Red State:

That is a huge blow to Barack Obama. Griffith was an extremely endangered Democrat.

We should now hope him be an extremely endangered Republican in a primary. We will not fix the GOP’s problems if we keep allowing people who are not one of us to suddenly switch the letter next to their name and magically become one of us.

Being a Republican should be about more than just the letter next to a person’s name. We can improve that seat.

Here are Griffith’s earmark requests. He voted for Pelosi for Speaker. He’s actually been more regularly with Pelosi than Jim Marshall (D-GA). We can pick this guy off and get a real Republican in that seat.

The Club for Growth:

Alabama is a run-off state, so Griffith will have to go head-to-head against a seasoned Republican if he wants to stay in office (assuming he doesn’t get 50% of the vote right off the bat).

Griffith’s voting record is far from conservative, too. Granted, he voted against the Big 4 – Obama’s first budget, the Stimulus, Cap and Trade, and ObamaCare.  However, his vote on the budget is slightly deceptive since he originally voted for 9 of the 12 spending bills that make up the budget.  And he voted against all the Stimulus amendments that would reduce its size.

But just a quick perusal of 2009 shows that he voted  YES on the 2009 pork-filled Omnibus; YES on Cash for Clunkers, NO on waiving the harmful Davis-Bacon provision, and had a pathetic 0% score on the 2009 RePORK Card.

This party switch signals Griffith’s nervousness, but it doesn’t signal that his incumbency is safe.

From my perspective, this clearly shows there is blowback from the Democrat’s legislative overreach in DC.  Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are now having to pay a political price for shoving their agenda down our throats.

However, what seems to be a GOP victory at first may well become another liberal victory in the long term.  Unless Parker Griffith starts voting like a true fiscal conservative, Alabama could be stuck with another entrenched big-government Republican congressman.

Welcome to the party, Parker. Here’s an electronic copy of the Constitution. Read it well, as you will have to continue to dodge us if you continue to disregard it.