On Party Switching

I of course chuckled to myself when I saw that Rep. Parker Griffith switched parties this week, blaming Speaker Pelosi and their atrocious Health care overall.  But I don't particularly embrace Rep. Griffith, who might be being intellectually honest but not terribly politically honest.  He knew what he was getting into when he ran for Congress, Obama campaigned on all of this. 

The model for party switching is Phil Gramm, who resigned his seat in Congress when he was a Democrat and ran as a Republican in the special election.  THAT is how you do it honestly.  Griffith knew he was going to lose reelection and I certainly hope Republicans in that particular Alabama district don't embrace him and nominate someone else.  This is no different than Arlen Specter. 

Comments

[Steven Osborne]

I am pleased that he decided to become a Republican, but he must now compete in the Republican primary just like everybody else. A solid conservative named Les Philips is already running for that seat and has backing from former Governor and Fox News host Mike Huckabee, don't be surprised to see Philips win a primary against Rep. Griffith.

[James Young]

I concur. We can't simultaneously demonize Specter and lionize Griffith.

[Ron]

Phil Gramm had helped shepherd through Reagan's tax cut while he was still a Democrat (The Gramm-Latta Act, I think). The Dems got ticked and stripped Gramm of his committee chairmanship. That's when Gramm switched parties and resigned his seat.

There may be an analogy in that Gramm is a PhD economist who saw the benefits of Reagan's tax cuts, while Griffith is a doctor who is seeing the horrors of Obama's health care plan. In any case, I agree that a primary might be a healthy thing.

In Specter's case, he was a Democrat before he became a Republican before he became a Democrat.

[Local GOP]

We are dozens of seats behind in the House. We should be thankful for anyone who won't vote for Obamacare, past voting records are irrelevant at this point.