Do You Trust Politicians Who Switch Parties For The Sake Of Electoral Expediency?

Scott Fistler (R-AZ) disguised as a Democrat and a Latino

Yesterday and the day before we talked about Blue Dogs Gene Taylor (MS) and Janice Pauls (KS) making the natural transition from Blue Dog-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- to plain ole Republican. "I have made the relatively easy decision to go from Blue Dog Democrat to Blue Collar Republican," explained Pauls, a deranged anti-Choice fanatic who had led the battle in Kansas against LGBT equality in her state. Taylor, who-- like most Blue Dogs-- voted more frequently with the GOP than with his own party, clearly switched parties so he could worm his way back into Congress in an increasingly Republican district. MS-04 has a PVI of R+21, even worse than when Taylor was still winning in the daunting R+16 district.

In 2009, when Alabama Blue Dog Parker Griffith jumped the fence and joined the GOP, he was welcomed to the party by the Establishment but rejected by GOP voters who defeated him the first chance they had in a primary. Despite backing from Boehner and the whole GOP Establishment, Griffith only garnered 33% and couldn't even force a runoff. When he ran in the Republican primary two years later he did even worse: 29%. Now he's running for governor-- as a Democrat!

Transactional corporate whores like Steve Israel and Rahm Emanuel and careerist operatives have worked to chip away at the Democratic brand in the name of a "Big Tent." You hear Debbie Wasserman Schultz braying happily about this between bites of her bagel and cream cheese nearly every day. The Big Tent makes it fine for Israel and Wasserman Schultz to open the flaps for an anti-LGBT extremist like congressional candidate Jennifer Garrison but how would the two of them react to a candidate who said the things about Jews that Garrison says about gays? Probably not well-- Big Tent or not.

Of course party switching is a two-way street and, for one reason or another-- though often political expediency-- Republicans often decide to become Democrats, especially in Democratic areas. Today voters on the Westside of L.A. (CA-33) are being asked by a carpetbagger from the Valley, Wendy Greuel, to vote for her for Congress. Her version of her 14 years as a Republican sound as though her family forced her into Republicanism and she escaped from the GOP when she was still a child. Of course that isn't true. She was a registered Republican into her 30s and in all likelihood voted for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. She didn't switch parties until she saw career opportunities for herself. The viciously negative style of campaigning that has made her one of Los Angeles' most disliked and mistrusted politicians-- smearing trusted progressives like Jan Perry, Eric Garcetti, Marianne Williamson and Ted Lieu all within a year-- is pure Karl Rove and has no place in Democratic Party politics. Many have noticed that during the CA-33 primary campaign, Greuel, unleashed her expensive attack machine against progressives… but never against [her fellow] Republicans.

This week, the Arizona Capitol Times pointed out that another Republican like Greuel switched to the Democratic Party in search of a job in politics. Scott Fistler, in fact, is even more ridiculous than Greuel. He not only switched parties, he legally changed his name to Cesar Chavez, tantamount to Greuel changing her name to Eleanor Roosevelt, although Nancy Reagan would have been a better fit. Fistler lost his last run against Ed Pastor and now that Pastor has announced he's retiring, he's trying again as Democrat Cesar Chavez in the heavily Hispanic district. The state Democratic Party is challenging his eligibility to run as a Democrat.

AZ-07 already has 5 Democrats running, including progressive favorite Ruben Gallego and a backward conservative from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, restauranteur Mary Rose Wilcox. More on that race later this week.