Rep. Griffith

     Now it's officially 7- 2 in the Alabama Congressional delegation, with Parker Griffith's decision to join the Republican Party. As usual it's the party that left the politician...."The Democratic Party no longer represents my values," he says, citing the health care legislation and the growing national debt.

     That leave Rep. Bobby Bright (IBD*,AL) and Rep. Artur Davis, (RFG**, AL) as the only non-GOP members.
     I have to wonder where Rep. Griffith's indignation over the accumulating debt was during the eight years of the Bush Administration. And that leaves health care. His side lost, so he's quitting?

     As indicated in the linked story above, The Alabama Democratic Party wants it's money back. Same thing happened when Sen. Richard Shelby switched parties to the GOP...though Shelby did it just days after being re-elected as a Democrat. Shelby offered to refund contributions, though I couldn't find out how much was returned, if any. I suspect most voters just treated it for what it was...a bad gambling debt.

     They would have been better off loosing the money at the table in Vegas. At least that bad debt they could deduct from their winnings on their taxes.

[* independent Blue Dog. ** Running For Governor]

[UPDATE: The Huntsville Times has reaction from Rep. Davis...much quicker and stronger reaction than I would have anticipated. Guess as the last man standing with a big "D" after his name...despite my RFG satire above...he has to defend the party he's running under.]

[UPDATE: December 23: Huntsville Times story this morning wonders about the power to protect area agencies like NASA that Griffith gave away.]