The Greg Laughlin Post of the Day
The switch of Rep. Parker Griffith (Alabama) to the Republican Party recalled a couple things to my mind.
First of all, what came to mind was a post by Larry Sabato in which he analyzed how conservative the Blue Dog Democrats were and found that most weren’t all that different from the rest of their caucus:
At the end of the day, contrary to the current media narrative, over two-thirds of Blue Dogs solidly support the Democratic agenda, with 36 of the 52 members voting the party line on over 90 percent of the time. In fact, only three Blue Dogs (Gene Taylor, with a 78 percent party voting score; Bobby Bright, AL-2, with 71 percent; and Walt Minnick, ID-1, with 68 percent) vote with the party on less than 80 percent of votes.
Where does Parker Griffith fall in this scale. The Washington Post puts his party unity score at 84.5% about 9% less than the average Democrat. And not all those votes were entirely meaningless as Andy Roth chronicles:
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.
So, with Griffin, we have a pro-pork moderate Congressman, and as the NRCC reminded us in 2008, he has some naivete on the issue of terrorism:
Daniel Foster at the Corner dug up this video along with an accompanying story from the Politico:
Democratic State Senator Parker Griffith has been under fire in recent weeks for comments made to a local Baptist association in which he suggested radical Islam isn’t a threat to the U.S. “We have nothing to fear from radical Islam. We have nothing to fear from any other religion if we are strong on our own beliefs. I don’t fear radical Islam,” Griffith said, according to an audio tape made of his appearance. Adding insult to injury, Griffith had already pointed a finger at American culture: “I think America’s greatest enemy is America and its materialism,” he said.
While I agree materialism’s a problem, ignoring radical Islam is naive. The second thing this whole incident reminds me of is Congressman Greg Laughlin, a Democratic Congressman who switched parties in 1996 only to lose the Republican Primary. It can happen.
And Republicans have a great candidate. Someone’s who has been a Republican for years, as opposed to hours. Les Philip is young, Black, and Conservative, the type of person most Republicans would avow we need in Congress. Exactly why should the rug be pulled out from beneath Philip to make room for a guy who just realized his lifetime affiliation with the Democrats was about to cost him his career? This is why we have primaries.
If Parker Griffin is the Republican Nominee, then I will fully support him. (As much as I fully support Congressional Candidates in Alabama.) But it’d be downright pathetic if a district that went for McCain by double digits would elect a pro-pork Republican who voted with the Democrats 84% of the time.
In other notes:
