Rep. Parker Griffith Switches Parties, Becomes Republican

Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Blue Dog Democrat from Alabama, will announce Tuesday that he's switching parties to become a Republican.

House Republican leadership had been courting Griffith, who voted against the stimulus package, health care reform, the energy bill, equal pay for women, the 2010 budget resolution and financial regulatory reform. He said at a town hall in August that he would not vote for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as Speaker of the House again because of her "divisive and polarizing" image. He also told constituents at the time that only Blue Dog Democrats could prevent the health care bill from moving forward in the House.

GOP leadership is thrilled -- but not all Republicans are feeling the love. RedState founder Erick Erickson is already targeting Griffith:

That is a huge blow to Barack Obama. Griffith was an extremely endangered Democrat.


We should now hope him [sic] 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.