Posts Tagged → Parker Griffith
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.
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.
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.
ALRLC encourages Alabama’s congressional delegation to support Federal Reserve Transparency Act
(Birmingham, AL) On Tuesday night, the Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus unanimously adopted a resolution encouraging Alabama’s congressional delegation to support H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009. Wikipedia describes H.R. 1207 as follows:
According to its short title, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 amends Title 31 of the United States Code “to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported”. It strikes exceptions to the audit protocol in 31 U.S.C. § 714 for the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States, and replaces an indefinite deadline with a deadline of December 2010.
“All Americans should support this important legislation regardless of their political views,” said Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus Chair Scott Boykin. “Transparency in public institutions is a fundamental value in a free society.”
The bill currently has 179 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, including Congressmen Robert Aderholt, Mike Rogers and Spencer Bachus from Alabama.
“We like to thank the three members of our congressional delegation who have signed onto the bill,” said ALRLC Media Director Stephen Gordon. “This should be an incredibly easy bill for any Republican to support and we’ve already got 35 cosponsors from the Democratic side of the aisle. We’d like to encourage Joe Bonner, Artur Davis, Bobby Bright and Parker Griffith to jump on board before the train leaves the station.”
The Alabama Republican Liberty caucus is committed to advancing the cause of liberty by advancing pro-freedom legislation and electing pro-freedom candidates to public office.
ALRLC quoted in the national media
Stephen Gordon provided his immediate opinion regarding Parker Griffith’s change of parties. Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent picked up his quote:
The “Burgess” to which Weigel referred is Alabama Eagle Forum Executive Director Brooklyn Burgess:
Michelle Malkin also picked up the quote, as well as one from Jeff Sessions, Les Phillip and Steve Boyette.
It’s nice to see the national media paying a bit of attention to the true conservatives in Alabama.