Posted on 02/05/2010 10:08:52 AM PST by MarvelynLouise
It looks like the RNC has found a way to attempt to make Parker Griffith relevant. Thursday, February 4, Republican leaders recommended Parker Griffith, (ex-Democrat) now GOP for the 5th Congressional District of Alabama, for a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
(Excerpt) Read more at alabamateaparty.net ...
Do you like cheese?
First problem with the article (or at least its title) is that Griffith isn’t a RINO. He’s actually voted pretty much straight down the line conservative during his single term in the House.
Since Feb 5,2010
Welcome to FR.
He’s a rino...he votes for what is expedient and will help him politically. If he weren’t hurting politically he would have voted with the dems. because he was more alligned with their beliefs. He’s just in a very conservative state, that is trending more and more conservatively and he’s fighting to retain his seat. There are 2 running against him that were more popular than him and would have handily beat him if he had stayed dem. That was his main reason for switching parties. I will be voting for one of the republicans that are running for the party seat against him.
Although he voted conservatively, he said things @ town hall meetings to appease whoever he was talking to. It changed from one moment to the next depending on who was in his audience.
The reality is that Parker Griffith is not a conservative. Here are the reasons why:
Griffith is far from conservative. Granted, he voted against the Big 4; Obama’s first budget, no-voted the Stimulus, Cap and Trade, and Obamacare. However, his vote on the budget is slightly deceptive since he originally voted for 9 of the 12 spending bills that make up the budget. And, he voted against all the Stimulus Amendments that would have reduced its size.
Not only that, obviously he voted for Pelosi, and he voted along party lines the majority of the time. Only after extreme pressure from Alabama constituents did he try to seem more conservative. He came out in favor publicly in 2008 FOR government-run health care. Is that conservative? I think not.
Griffith voted YES on the 2009 pork-filled Omnibus; YES on Cash for Clunkers, NO on waiving the harmful Davis-Bacon provision, and had a pathetic 0% score on the 2009 RePORK Card. So, with Griffith, we have a pro-pork moderate Congressman, and as the NRCC reminded us in 2008, he has some naivete on the issue of terrorism:
“Democratic State Senator Parker Griffith has been under fire in recent weeks for comments made to a local Baptist association in which he suggested radical Islam isn’t a threat to the U.S. ‘We have nothing to fear from radical Islam. We have nothing to fear from any other religion if we are strong on our own beliefs. I don’t fear radical Islam’, said Griffith. This is from an audio tape made of his appearance. Adding insult to injury, Griffith had already pointed a finger at American culture: ‘I think America’s greatest enemy is America and its materialism’, he said. “
Griffith has a record of not holding town hall meetings in the Huntsville/Decatur [AL] area, not answering The Tea Party’s call for a town hall meeting locally and basically “stonewalling” citizens who showed up at his local office in Huntsville [AL] in order to leave messages and drop off letters. At one point, his office was closed early; the staff peering through windows at voters as they came by in order to drop off letters in person, only to find it closed.
The point is, there is a constitutional conservative running as a GOP against Griffith. The contrast is amazing.
So, no, Griffith IS NOT a conservative.
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