Bill Daley Was Sad When Democratic Rep. Who Voted Against The White House Agenda Continually Switched Parties

Wonkette's Jack Stuef points us to this Dec. 24, 2009 op-ed authored by new White House Chief of Staff William Daley:

The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party -- my lifelong political home -- has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.

Ah, yes! Parker Griffith, member of the "big tent" that the new Chief of Staff wanted to maintain, voted against the White House's legislative agenda on numerous occasions. Including all of the important ones! Griffith voted against the American Recovery And Reinvestment Act. He voted against the American Clean Energy And Security Act. He voted against the Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act. Was he a serious deficit hawk? Uhm, no: he voted against the deficit-reducing Affordable Health Care For America Act.

Griffith voted against the Lilly Ledbetter act, for Pete's sake! How often do you see the White House bragging about signing that?

After being a brilliant ally of the Obama administration's would-be gravediggers, Griffith switched to the Republican Party. While the National Republican Congressional Committee very generously pulled down the many attack ads they had made about him from YouTube, he wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms. Alabama voters didn't want Griffith in their tent, either. They went on to kick him to the curb during the Alabama primary, opting instead for Mo Brooks.

Despite the fact that he voted against the American Recovery And Reinvestment Act, Griffith asked for $15 million of that cheddar, for "cogongrass eradication." And just before he announced his party switch, Griffith "downloaded voter data from the Alabama Democratic Party that is available to elected Democrats." He subsequently "promised to give it back," but long after his switch, he hadn't done so.

So we're talking about a really honorable and credible fellow here, possessed of the sorts of talents that Daley apparently believes are essential to ... something? I mean, certainly not helping the White House. He's fun to play basketball with maybe?

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Comments

[ennis438]

10:14 AM on 01/07/2011

Good riddance, Parker. With Republicants like you gone , the country is a far better place, at least for the middle class and the poor. Take a very long walk on a very short pier.

[SPQR1052]

05:29 AM on 01/07/2011

Jason if this is all you got please stay on the porch with the other whining puppies and leave the battles  to real men and  warriors.

[General Public]

04:39 AM on 01/07/2011

Obviously Parker Griffith was not a real Democrat but honestly, is this the best you can come up with on William Daley? I looked at the opinion column by William Daley, and yes, while it does say Democrats should move to the "center" (a common refrain among Democrats who already are in that so-called "center" which is actually more of a corporatist watered-down version of Republican conservatism), the connection between William Daley and Parker Griffith is tenuous at best. William Daley briefly mentioned Parker Griffith as the latest of a number of "moderate" Democrats who were either retiring or switching parties, and was just latching onto the example of Parker Griffith as an excuse to make a larger argument, albeit one I strongly disagree with, that the Democrats should move to the "center" and be more like Republicans. Those posting here making the 3-way connection from Barack Obama to William Daley to Parker Griffith are really doing this guilt-by-association thing quite a bit too much. The issue with William Daley that is raised by looking at that opinion column he wrote is NOT any sort of personal thing to do with Parker Griffith, who is completely irrelevant now and was only being used as an example in the first place. No, the issue is that William Daley promotes centrism, which I am sure makes him quite popular with the Washington Post as they share that misguided ideology. Ideology, not guilt by association, is the issue.

[60s Dem]

08:06 PM on 01/06/2011

Looks like another feather in the cap of Barack Obama, progressive killer extraordinaire. Yeah, Barack sure can pick em!!! I fully expect him to offer Dick Cheney a job any day now!!! Jeez!!!

[jsgaetano]

06:48 PM on 01/06/2011

If Obama keeps thinking that "Staying the Course" on the failed and fraud-based ideology of the conservatives is how he's going to win, he clearly has not paid attention to the last election.
 
I'll be watching the next two years, but I have a feeling I'll be NOT voting for Obama again.

[Jay Sitlani]

06:42 PM on 01/06/2011

The reality is that the Democratic party is a moderate, centrist party (even Bernie Sanders, who is technically not a Democrat, is to the right of, say, a Republican like Jacob Javits from the 1970s on many issues). The perception, sadly, is that its a hive of socialists intent on shoving big government down your throat. Case in point: the healthcare bill. It's a very centrist piece of legislation that's built primarily on creating access to private insurance, and one that was championed by the pharmaceutical industry. The Dems, however, failed to message this reality in the face of the teabaggers, the endless lies by Mme. Palin and her band of merry thugs, and the onslaught by some elements within the insurance industry. Maybe this guy can do the messaging game well. Gibbs and Axelrod were absolutely useless. They muttered the same old pablum day after day, and all of it while factually correct, it wasn't making a political dent. The Dems need someone who's aggressive and who can cut through the GOP BS.

[SPQR1052]

05:28 AM on 01/07/2011

co sign

[andiannj]

06:00 PM on 01/06/2011

Everyone except the Progressives are included in their 'big tent'.

[politi freak]

05:57 PM on 01/06/2011

I think Jason missed the point of the article is his rush to criticize Daley. Clearly, Daley is lamenting the facts that Democrats (in this case Griffith) are switching parties because they are going through the same political shift (to the left) that Republicans are going through on the right. The fact that he's right seems to escape this author perhaps because he is a part of that ideological shift left-ward.

Some progressives (the left of the left) feel as if because the right of the right wing of the GOP has emerged as a political force that they need to scream as loudly or as ignorantly as they do. Progressives have always had a better agenda. The Constitution is the perfect example of liberalism. We as progressives need to calm down. The major reason why tea partiers aren't taken seriously is because they shout idiocies like socialism and Marxism without understanding who the true enemies really are. Liberals have the same problem. We constantly attack those we elect, hoping that they will do our bidding. But I ask you, where is this outrage when there are no elections? Where are the tv ads calling out the true enemy of the progressive agenda? All I'm saying is don't be mad when you don't take action and when someone's back is against the wall get mad because he's run out of options.

[Pashovski]

05:39 PM on 01/06/2011

Wow Parker Griffith!

Even the mustache'd one called him a 'living fossil'

[RadCenter]

05:22 PM on 01/06/2011

Ugh.

[sherriwilson]

05:20 PM on 01/06/2011

Really? Seriously? As a Democrat in Alabama, I wasn't sad to see him go. I prefer Democrats who stand for Democratic principles. Maybe that's just me...

[jsgaetano]

06:49 PM on 01/06/2011

That's everyone, but Obama will never give up on his conservative ideology.