Switching in the middle of a term does not bother me quite as much as switching at the beginning of a term.
There may be principled and legitimate reasons for switching in the middle of the term. Phil Graham did it after he was stripped of his committee assignments for providing the bipartisanship in the Reagan tax cuts. Blue Dog democrats switching in the House in protest to a Marxist-Socialist Minority Leader could be another example.
But, come on. These guys in Georgia are switching, not because they have a principle -- other than the principle of being in the majority. Changing parties less than a week after the election because the party you are in loses its majority is low.
Senator Wayne Morse changed parties from Republican to Democrat in the 1950s. He disagreed with the direction that the party was going. And his defection would have changed the leadership in the Senate, except for one thing. Morse, since he had been elected as a Republican continued to vote with the Republican party for organizational purposes for the balance of his term, until he was re-elected as a Democrat. He believed it to be unfair for a personal decision to change leadership. So while he voted Democratic on the issues (and God bless folks willing to cross party lines to vote for what they believe is right -- whether it is Zell Miller or Olympia Snow) Morse followed an honorable course.
Would that more politicians follow his example today. "Win at any cost," and "gotta be in the majority" is killing our government.
If people don't like what their representative/senator does in Georgia there is always recall....
I used to live in GA, it would be a nice place if my ex-wife wasn't there....