Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Parker Griffith Story Takes Some Curious Turns

The story of U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) and his switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party continues to evolve, with political intrigue brewing on several fronts.

Perhaps our favorite part of the story is that it inspired one of the most insightful statements about modern conservatism that we've ever read.

More on that in a moment. But first, let's examine the latest news on the Griffith front. Reporter Patricia C. McCarter of The Huntsville Times provides a solid overview. Here are some highlights:

* The Alabama Democratic Party (ADC) accused Main Street Strategies, Griffith's political-consulting firm, of downloading the party's voter identification data in the "wee hours" before Griffith changed parties. Here is the official ADC release, and Raw Story has a splendid overview piece on the controversy.

* Griffith said he did not commission a poll to determine his electability as a Democrat. But that contradicts a Congressional Quarterly report that said Griffith's office confirmed he did commission a poll.

* Griffith's press secretary, Sean Magers, resigned.

* Griffith predicted that he would be a presence on congressional committees, but he could not point to any agreement he has with Republicans regarding committee assignments.

Is Parker Griffith a two-faced phony? Raw Story found evidence that the answer is yes, considering that Griffith cited his opposition to health-care reform as a prime reason for leaving the Democratic Party. Reports Raw Story:

David Weigel at the Washington Independent notes that Griffith's denouncement of the health care reform effort doesn't jibe with his pro-health reform track record. Greg Sargent catches a May 2006 interview with then-State Senator Parker Griffith in which he refers to himself as a “life-long” Democrat and a supporter of “health care for all of the citizens.”

Perhaps most importantly, we will be eternally grateful for Griffith's party switch because it inspired some brilliant writing from "DavidNYC" of Daily Kos.

In a diary titled "AL--05: Parker Griffith Can Lose," "DavidNYC" writes:

It's important to remember that to remain a member in good standing of the conservative movement, it isn't enough just to vote a certain way. You have to evidence a very particular tribal belonging - you need to hate the right people, be ignorant of the right facts, be fearful of the right bogeymen, and be arrogant about the whole enterprise. If you somehow fail this tribal litmus test, it doesn't matter how right-wing you are.

Talk about cutting to the chase. We raised the issue of American tribalism, and the dangers it presents, in a post the day after the November 2008 elections. We even noted the irony that we are fighting wars in two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, that are dysfunctional largely because of tribalism.

It took us more than a dozen paragraphs to make our point. But "DavidNYC" gets right to the ugly truth about conservatism in three short sentences.

Brilliant stuff. Thank you, Parker Griffith.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.rsa-al.gov/JRF/jrf-pubs-forms.html

I've been investigating the PERS system in Oregon and Washington.

Looking at Alabama - Calif was used to do some comparative analysis to its retirement systems.

Point is this - Judges are automatically into the system of retirement and then when the retirement stocks are investigated the governments are basically investing in their own government stocks such as oil, tires, and you name it. Go and research how the State of Alabama funds its "wealth."

America's system of government is how to take all the wealth from any and all the "taxpayers" and give it to the war mongers via retirement stocks.

Study your retirement system and then demand every judge expose their future "wealth."

Judges are more guilty of abusing the "taxpayer" than any other legal entity and this can more than be remedied:

Each retirement system has a board of directors who are represented by legal counsel.

Time to bring the lawyers who represent the retiring judges who are truly in violation of the US Constitution and of course the States, all of them -- into the JUSTICE system of full transparency.

Best, Biloxi

Anonymous said...

Ok, here is the deal: JPMorgan Chase aka Goldman Sachs allowed for each retirement system to be paid back for the loss in the subprime fiasco by ...

BlackRock Credit Investors Co-Investment Fund L.P

Yes, Oregon's retirement bought into this hedge fund immediately as New Jersey was dumping it.

So did many of the states, just search engine this greatest crime hoisted onto America!

OUR HOMES ARE BEING GIVEN BACK TO THE GOVERNMENT RETIREMENT PROGRAMS FOR THE JUDGES, et al. SO THEIR RETIREMENT FROM THE SUBPRIME LOSSES ARE FILLED.

In other words the system works alright - cyclically when the wars are lost by the democrats or republicans (does not matter which bird of a feather), then the inflation of any/all property value or years in pension funds (you lost all Mr. and Mrs. LS) go back into the pension funds via the hedge funds that stole the securities.

STUDY THE SEC rap sheets for each government and their retirements.

The reason there is no stopping the foreclosures by our wonderful judicial system ...

RETIREMENT USA depends upon real property (homes) to fatten the calf for the high on a hog criminals who bring home the bacon for the globalist crime cabal.

EXPOSE YOUR STATE'S PORTFOLIOS. Simply get a Records Subpoena and begin the turnaround artistry we must have to restore sanity!

A legal entity is found on the SEC sheets or at the retirement site where our infamous purchasers of products do their dirty deeds.

Biloxi

Frank said...

You make light of this Parker Griffith thing and as you say the story takes some curious turns. Well, you may want to read what William M. Daley, of the Chicago Daley machine has to say about recent "curious turns".

The writer was secretary of commerce in the Clinton administration and chairman of Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.
Daley was named to the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.
He is the seventh and youngest child of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and Eleanor "Sis" Daley, and the brother of the city's current mayor, Richard M. Daley.

A warning to Obama:
Keep the Big Tent big
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/23/AR2009122302439.html