Much Wingnut Ado Over A "Bush Dog" Dustup

Over at Irrational Spew Online, someone named Stephen Spruiell is crowing here over a defection from the U.S. House Democratic ranks, and that would be someone named Parker Griffith of Alabama who just announced that he would become a Repug.

Well, considering Griffith’s horrible voting record, as noted here, that really isn’t much of a surprise (and good for the DCCC here).

However, that didn’t stop Spruiell from saying the following…

…that puts the Blue Dog scoreboard at:

Retirements: Dennis Moore, John Tanner, Bart Gordon, Brian Baird.

Defections: Parker Griffith.

We need a ticker to keep track of these.

Not yet you don’t, unless, of course, Spruiell has difficulty counting beyond the number four (in that event, I believe Spruiell could purchase an educational aid of some type from Fisher Price).

But if it’s a ticker he wants, then he might need one to keep track of the following Repug defections from Congress…

109th (here):

28 November 2005 - Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham - Republican - California CD 50 resigned, effective at close of business 1 December, from the U.S. House after pleading guilty to Federal charges involving bribes, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion.

9 June 2006 - Congressman Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay - Republican - Texas CD 22 resigned. House Majority Leader DeLay was indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme by a Texas grand jury on 28 September 2005. House rules required him to relinquish his leadership position. Mr. Delay was renominated in the 7 March 2006 Texas Primary but withdrew his nomination 4 April and announced his intention to resign on 11 May.

29 September 2006 - Congressman Mark Foley - Republican - Florida CD 16 resigned and withdrew his candidacy from the General Election. Mr. Foley had received his party's nomination in the 5 September primary.

3 November 2006 - Robert "Bob" Ney - Republican - Ohio CD 18 resigned. He pleaded guilty on 13 October 2006 to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

110th (here):

Dennis Hastert (resigned from the House; seat won by Dem Bill Foster)

Richard Baker (resigned from the House; seat won by Dem Don Cazayoux)

Tom Davis (resigned in advance of retirement)

111th (here):

Mel Martinez (resigned from the Senate)

George Voinovich (resigned from the Senate)

Jim Bunning (resigned from the Senate)

Sam Brownback (resigned from the Senate)

“Kit” Bond (resigned from the Senate)

(Also, as noted here, Spruiell had an issue with K.O. referring to Obama’s predecessor as “Mr. Bush,” even though that “dastardly liberal” Bill Buckley did the same thing.)

To be fair, there have been plenty of Democratic member changes in Congress over that time for a variety of reasons, including winning the presidency (Obama in the Senate), winning the governorship of New Jersey (Jon Corzine, who handed off his Senate seat to Bob Menendez in ‘06; as we know, Corzine lost his bid for re-election this year), and deaths (Bob Matsui and Tom Lantos in the House and Ted Kennedy in the Senate).

Also, if Spruiell’s point is that the Dems would have to play defense in the election cycle coming up as well as 2012, I should point out that that’s something that has been known for some time (much as the Repugs had to do so in 2006).

And though I would rather that the Democrats do so on the wings of passage of a health care bill that actually is more than about 60-70 percent of a loaf, as it were (as opposed to what will likely pass), I would rather be in their shoes at this moment than that of a national party whose primary hope for electoral success lies with a bunch of “teabaggin” values-voter throwbacks to the earlier part of this decade (happily now over) who think that Obama is trying to control one-sixth of the economy, who believe we will sacrifice jobs in the name of reversing the horrific effects of climate change (assuming that is still possible), and who actually have bought and will buy Sarah Palin’s book.

Update 1 12/23/09: Maybe another on the way (here)? No big loss (h/t Atrios).

Update 2 12/23/09: I hope this fraud ends up having to pay every penny owed back to the DCCC, with interest (here).