Converts and prayers
A Democrat switches parties, a tea-partier prays for a death
Converts and prayers
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
At first glance, Democratic congressman Parker Griffith's defection to the GOP doesn't seem like much of a story - and it's not because, until yesterday, you probably never heard of Parker Griffith.
Even before his announcement that he was switching parties, the freshman lawmaker had been voting with the House Republicans on all the big stuff (no to the economic stimulus, no to health care reform, no to cap and trade, no to jobs creation), so the Democrats haven't really lost a vote.
More importantly, Griffith hails from the deep red state of Alabama; southern Democrats have long been defecting to the GOP. The trend began in the mid-'60s (Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina) and persisted well into the '90s (Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, congressman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana). Democrats have steadily lost ground in Dixie, just as the Republicans have steadily lost ground in the Northeast. If a Democratic congressman outside Dixie announces in 2010 that he is switching to the Republicans...now that would be a big story, if only because such a move would be virtually unprecedented.
At second glance, however, Griffith's party switch is newsworthy indeed. Democrats have lately prided themselves on becoming more ideologically diverse; starting with the '06 election cycle, they have labored successfully to build a big-tent coalition - Dixie conservatives, heartland moderates, coastal liberals, one happy family. They did this by electing dozens of Democrats in traditionally Republican-leaning states and congressional districts. Griffith was a classic example; last year, the national party spent more than a million bucks to help pull him across the finish line in his conservative northern Alabama district, where 61 percent of the voters chose John McCain in the presidential balloting.
Yet now, with his defection announcement, Griffith has signaled that the Democratic label could be an albatross in red districts next November. He has cast a vote of no confidence, and the question that is surely bedeviling Democratic leaders this week is whether he will be joined by others in the party ranks. Griffith aside, 48 House Democrats currently represent districts that supported McCain in 2008. If the Republicans can raid that roster and bag a couple more converts - particularly outside of Dixie - they would have every right to brag about their prospects for 2010.
The Republicans have already been bragging about their Griffith coup, by the way, and it's actually quite hilarious. In a message late yesterday afternoon, GOP chairman Michael Steele declared that Griffith's "principles and values" are "right for America." A subsequent party message respectfully referred to the congressman as "Doctor Griffith," since the guy is a practicing oncologist. Yet less than six months ago, during the Alabama campaign, national Republicans were sliming Griffith in TV ads as as a quack doctor, somebody who was "under-dosing" his cancer patients "so he could make more profits through protracted treatments. His approach caused unwarranted pain and suffering, but it meant more money to him. Shameful conduct. He can't be trusted." They also slimed him in another TV ad as soft on terrorists, and therefore "wrong for Alabama."
Now, all of a sudden, Griffith is lauded as a respected doctor whose "principles and values" make him "right for America." Either the Republicans are knowingly welcoming a quack doc and terrorist softy into their ranks, or they knew all along that their '08 smears were lies. I opt for the latter interpretation.
Seriously, can you blame this guy for switching sides? Granted, Griffith felt out of sync with the national Democratic priorities, but it must be a relief just knowing that, in 2010, the GOP's hardball specialists will be at his side rather than in his face.
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The showdown Senate floor vote on health care reform is less than 24 hours away. There is still time for God to kill Robert Byrd.
At least one devout soul hopes so. This gentleman, who lives in Waycross, Georgia, has been praying so very, very hard for the death of the 92-year-old Democratic senator from West Virginia (if Byrd dies before the big vote, Democrats won't have the necessary 60), but so far it seems that God just hasn't seen fit to open his email message. Either that, or maybe God misread his email message...because, for awhile there, our God-fearing Georgian feared that God had killed Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe by mistake.
By now you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Trust me, you cannot make this stuff up:
The guy called into C-Span yesterday morning, apparently in tears. He and his tea-party pals had been praying for some kind of mishap to befall a Democrat - in accordance with Sen. Tom Coburn's recent suggestion that all devout Americans ask God for assistance. But when a key Senate vote was held the other morning, it turned out that Inhofe was absent. Oh, no...had God perchance laid waste to the wrong senator?
But let's permit our fellow citizen from Georgia to speak for himself. Here he is on the phone line, pouring out his angst to C-Span's guest of the hour, Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso:
"Our small tea bag group here in Waycross, we got our vigil together and took Dr. Coburn's instructions and prayed real hard that Sen. Byrd would either die or couldn't show up at the vote the other night. How hard did you pray, because I see one of our members (Inhofe) was missing this morning. Did it backfire on us? One of our members died? How hard did you pray, senator? Did you pray hard enough?"
Barrasso didn't bat an eye, much less try to admonish the caller and perhaps suggest that good Christians should not petition God for the purposes of murder. After all, no sane Republican wants to take the risk of questioning a tea partier's sanity. Better to have those folks at your side than in your face, praying for your demise. As Parker Griffith has apparently calculated as well.
hand, I haven't been yet:) I say we should have HSA accounts (i've had them in the past and they work w/before tax dollars). I also think we should move away from employer based coverage to a more individual based coverage and buy health insurance directly from health insurance companies as well and be able to deduct the costs on our taxes as businesses do. We need to try any tried and true remedy to lower healthcare costs and future increases for the middle class. The bill currently being considered does no such thing, imho.— NEPhilly
Comment removed.- Did Polman mention that the Republicans had not won Griffiths seat since Reconstruction? I mean, that was a big deal in the NY 23rd, so why not in Alabama?— tom - wilmington, de
- That caller was a crank, as known by the reference as a "tea bag group". The tea party people do not refer to themselves as "tea bag". That is the reference you find on MSNBC from the likes of Olberman, Maddow, Laurence O'Donnell and Ed Shultz.— tom - wilmington, de
- I'll bet that no Senator read the bill but I also bet that every Senators' staffers read every syllable. I'm fascinated by the talking pint that the bill is "over 2000 pages"? What should be the proper length of complex legislation? Is 100 pages better. Speaking of power politics, if the Republican's wanted to help American citizens they could have chipped in on the bill. They chose not to for two reasons: First, the party is hostage to an ideology that purports that government is evil and anything it does to assist it's citizens is socialism. Furthermore, the far right ideology considers compromise a sign of weakness. Secondly, the Republican leadership has decided that it had nothing to gain politically with going along with the Dems as it would only infuriate the base. I credit them with sticking together but will it pay off in the long run?— Rabe56
- Comment removed.
- Anyone who believes that the opposite side has a monopoly on hypocrisy is not to be taken seriously in any political debate.— HeywoodEm
- Comment removed.
- The more I know about this healthcare bill, the more it just astonishes me. A provision was included at the behest of Sen Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) that small construction companies with more than 5 employees and a payroll of $250K MUST provide health insurance. The threshold for other small businesses is 50 employees. Seems like a violation of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection right to me. Margins in the construction business are very small, and this will just make them smaller. Coupled with the increase in premiums sure to come soon due to the tax increases, and you have more businesses shutting their doors. We also have another tax increase. Employers who provided prescription coverage to retirees (which kept them out of the Medicare plan) received a 28% tax free subsidy. Now the Senate bill taxes that subsidy, which means companies will stop providing the coverage, which would either mean retirees (seniors) will not have coverage, or it will increase the burden on Medicare. And just think, when all other senators demand the federal government pick up the tab for their additional medicaid recipients (at a total cost of $30 Billion), and when they want their current Medicare Advantage seniors grandfathered in (as was done in Florida) thereby reducing the "cuts" in Medicare, will this bill STILL be deficit neutral?— tom - wilmington, de
- Ah, you mean "Dr." Bill Frist. Remember when he concluded, from viewing a videotape, that a comatose Terri Schiavo was "lucid"? Now we have Dr. Coburn, praying that a Democratic senator won't make the vote. Is he hoping that Bobby Byrd takes a turn for the worst? PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF!— Rabe56
- Comment removed.
- kelprod1, you must have missed the provision in the Senate bill that prevents future Congresses from making any changes to or repealing any portions of this healthcare bill. Never before has legislation been passed which barred a future Congress from changing/repealing any of its provisions. Yes, this legislation could never have stood on its own merits. Seems to me what Ben Nelson, Chris Dodd, Bill Nelson did to secure their votes is what Duke Cunningham is in jail for doing with defense contracts.— tom - wilmington, de
- Comment removed.
- Cutter, you're hilarious. Jesus was from Georgia! Hahaha. I bet there are those who are convinced he was.— NigeltheMastiff
- Gibba, they oppose cuts to Medicare because their base is now people 65 and older. They have to keep their voters alive as long as possible. Because when they die out, if you thought 2008 was a high-tide year for liberals, wait.— CutterMcCool
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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