Alabama Congress Folks Do it Again. Flip-Flopping Galore for Christmas

Alabama has done it again. We have found a way to thrust ourselves into the national spotlight in a completely embarrassing way.

Yesterday, Democrat Representative Parker Griffith decided it would be better if he picked up a bat and began swinging for the other team. Did he get a promise for better pay? Reassurance of re-election for next year? Who knows. What we do know is he betrayed the people who elected him to do a job as they saw fit, not how he thought would help him down the road.

Look, let's just look past the fact that Griffith was elected in a district, the AL-5 District, that, according to a Huffington Post article, has elected a Republican twice since the Civil War and one of them was during the Reconstruction Era. He liked his odds as a Democrat I guess.

Many people are outraged at this obvious, and blatant, disrespect for our electoral system. Riding the popularity train into the turn around and fist you station.

However, the ones of us who have followed or researched Griffith are not very surprised by this act of flip-flopping during a pivotal moment during our nation's distress.

So this past Tuesday Parker Griffith announced that he's switching parties. He is saying he can no longer align himself, “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.”

So if it is unsafe to be a Democrat now, what was it back then Parker in 2006, during your time in the state legislature, or when you were campaigning for Congress, that made you sway to the left? Oh wait, there is no f***ing way it could be because the Republicans themselves used to be unpopular with the public? (Republican approval ratings during Senate Campaign) Say it isn't so Parker!

Let's take a look at how Griffith has voted in Congress.

Barack Obama's first bill he signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which was amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in an effort to help advance the dream of equality in the work place, for a woman, underpaid for 19 years alongside her male coworkers.

Congressional Freshman Parker Griffith voted against it. And we didn't even haze him yet!

Griffith voted alongside Democrats 84 percent of the time. However he opposed Obama's first budget, the stimulus package, the climate bill and health care reform.

No surprise there.

It almost sounds like another "side swapper"...Ahh, I remember him, "Joltin Joe" Lieberman and his wife Hadassah Lieberman, who works for a major lobbying firm as its specialist on health insurance and pharmaceuticals.

"Haddy" previously worked as a consultant at drug companies such as Pfizer, Hoffmann-La Roche and ALCO Pharmacy. And her husband is working against public health care in support of private insurance? Wow. Really?

Anyways, back to Parker.

Most people were not surprised by the man who has a 7 percent progressive rating and a 33 percent conservative rating leaving to join his fellow Republicans.

Sadly for Griffith, the right are not that excited to see him come. Except for John McCain who is using Griffith as a campaign tool to bring more "conservative" Democrats, but does McCain really even know where he is?

Funny how this is the same forgetful John McCain who last week stood up in defiance as Democrat Senators insisted that each speaker be allowed only 10 minutes of time to speak in order to keep Republicans from filibustering crucial health care legislation. McCain called it an outrage never before seen in, "all his years of being in the Senate."

It was a valiant effort for the Maverick until Rachel Maddow called him out. She pulled up CSPAN footage (which someone had tried to erase parts of) and the transcript where he did the same thing to Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton while Dayton was trying to protest the Iraq War.

Yeah, maybe he needs to pack up and head to Shady Acres.

So who, besides McCain, is even worrying about Griffith? Well known Conservative blogger of the site Red State, Erick Erickson, has already chastised him.

His quote below begins with something that is apparently not the English language, but please just bare with the poor guy.

"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."

Dale Jackson, a radio commentator from Huntsville who has been given the name "the Rush Limbaugh of Huntsville", has not met this change with open arms. (Here is Jackon's "awesome" blog, which is now full of anti-Parker Griffith "stuff, enjoy!)

"He's a liar. Michael Steele should be ashamed of himself. The NRCC should be ashamed of itself for not coming out and immediately repudiating this guy. He was unacceptable a year ago and he's acceptable now?"

Bottom line, I say let Parker have his year of fun as a Republican. They don't even like him that much. What harm can he do?

I still find it interesting that a man who started the Huntsville Cancer Treatment Center and provided discounted or sometimes free care for patients without insurance, has suddenly joined the ranks of people wanting to bar these same people from getting the healthcare they as citizens deserve. Truly fascinating.

So where do we go from here? We are one Democrat down approaching the end of 2009. Should we be worried? The same thing happened during the "Republican Revolution" during 1994 when Clinton tried pushing healthcare reform.

What happened? Bush, happened.

Is a Republican congress in the works for the future? Maybe, but only time will tell.

However, what I do know is that for the first time in our nation's history, we are closer than ever to revising a broken system. A system that for decades has chosen who lives and dies in exchange for soaring profits in the private industry.

We may not have got the public option that would allow a competitive market that would force the insurance companies to lower their premiums or be run out of business, but what we do have is a start.