Strategy Advice 101 for @Griffith2014

Alabama is a deeply “red” state (some say “redneck,” which may also be accurate), which is to say, that the state has historically voted Republican for the past several years; all of the state’s top office holders are Republicans, and both houses of the legislature are similarly controlled by Republicans.

The website 270ToWin.com had this remark about the state’s political alignment: “Alabama became a GOP stronghold starting in 1964, voting for Democrats only in 1968 and 1976 (for native son George Wallace and Jimmy Carter, respectively). The initial shift was largely in response to white conservative voter uneasiness with the civil rights legislation that was passed in the mid-1960s, which was effectively exploited by the Republicans’ “Southern Strategy.” In 2012, Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by about 22%, almost identical to John McCain‘s margin of victory in 2008.”

Frankly, the Democratic party in Alabama has been virtually decimated, and there are very few candidates identifying themselves with the party. Many state office-holders are running unopposed, including other Federal seats, including incumbent United States Senator Jeff Sessions.

Taking a clue from the George Wallace playbook (Wallace was a STRONG and almost constant campaigner), there are 67 reasons why I wouldn’t give Parker Griffith a strong chance at winning the governorship.

For example, has he

Why did Parker Griffith vote AGAINST the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?

Official portrait, Parker Griffith, MD as freshman member of the United States House of Representatives, Alabama 5th Congressional District.

Campaign photograph – 53rd Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, Jr., MD

As a politician, Parker Griffith has been described as “maverick.”

To describe it diplomatically, he has been “somewhat unpredictable.”

To be blunt, he’s a loose cannon.

His most recent political aspiration includes 2014 candidacy for Alabama governor under the Democratic ticket, challenging first term Republican Robert Bentley (described as “wildly popular”), whom is similarly a retired physician, and former Alabama State House Representative from Tuscaloosa, whom has publicly announced his opinion that he will be re-elected during a tour of Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, where sexual assaults, and abuses of innumerable kind have become so rampantly commonplace that Alabama’s prison system is verging upon federal takeover.

It was during his tour of that prison that “Our kindly country doctor governor toured Tutwiler in early March and quietly said, “we are probably going to have to build some new prisons in my second term.””

Griffith’s greatest obstacle is his past. More specifically, the greatest mountain he must conquer is his decision to switch parties (from Democrat to Republican) while in his first term in Congress, which abruptly ended his political aspirations.

The nightmare of his actions still haunts Alabama voters, many whom have not forgotten – including those in his hometown, Huntsville & Madison County. Like the ghastly spectre in Charles Dickens’ classic fiction “A Christmas Carol,” Parker Griffith must come face-to-face with the Ghost of Election Past, and Bentley with the Ghost of Alabama Yet to Come.

And in this real-life play, Bob Cratchit is played by the people, while 18.1% of the state’s population (the state poverty rate) are cast as the sickly child, Tiny Tim. They and others are the ones whom are denied by the Scrooge, played by Governor Bentley and Republican-dominated state legislature.

In reality, Griffith and Bentley play dual roles in this real-life political /social /medical /economic drama.

Charles Dickens circa 1850: he ‘kept on going by taking on too much’. Photograph: Herbert Watkins

Is there salvation for Griffith?

Will Bentley expand Medicaid?

Can anyone really help the citizens of Alabama?

Tune in next time! when we hear _?_ say…

Griffith’s last foray into politics – as Representative for Alabama’s 5th Congressional District – did not bode well, for after the first full year of a two-year term, he announced he was changing political party affiliation, for which he was resoundingly criticized at home by his constituency, in the press for his actions, and then subsequently resoundingly defeated by GOP challenger “Mo” Brooks in the 2010 Republican primary.

When he represented Alabama’s 5th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, Parker Griffith voted against

Parker Griffith suggests Mo Brooks has adultery with Nancy Pelosi

“I’m having trouble picturing Mo and Nancy Pelosi in the same bed. How about you all?”
– Parker Griffith, MD, (R), Congressman 5th Congressional District, AL

After Griffith made that unseemly remark Monday night, 13 April 2010 at a political forum hosted at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Mo Brooks’ wife got out of her seat and walked out of the auditorium.

Griffith was gleeful in his negative repartee. After Brooks’ wife walked out, he said,

Parker Griffith-ing

Liar… thief…

Those terms just seem to gravitate toward AL 5th Congressional District Rep. Parker Griffith, MD (R) who recently, halfway through his first two-year term,  jumped Democratic ship for the Republican party.

Perhaps it’s not as much his secretive “I’m going to switch parties half-way in my first two-year term,” attitude that bothers people as much as it is his now-broken promises – essentially lies – such as the one to return campaign contributions to disgruntled donors.

I suppose a good analogy would be his sex change. Griffith married a woman, representing himself to be a man. After the birth and rearing of their children (halfway through his life), he announces to his wife and family he’s a woman and will be having a sex change – which in turn, of course, would make her a lesbian – which she is not – and consequently call into question the validity of their marriage.

In that light, two other words seem apropos for Griffith – mentally defective.

Family’s more strident words might include traitor… asshole.

Of course, ultimately, the one to be pitied is Griffith, and secondarily the people he injured (his family representing his constituency) along his selfish and misguided way. And in this case, divorce would only add insult to injury. What is genuinely needed is intensive psychotherapy for Griffith.

Politics, Politics, Politics…

North Alabama’s 5th Congressional Representative, Parker Griffith, MD, continues damaging his constituency.

News reports shortly after his decision to switch rather than fight, indicated that his staff resigned.

Parker Griff-switch – without consulting anyone – up and decided that he needed to be a Republican, instead of a Democrat, the party under which he was elected to office.

With one year remaining in his first – and likely only – two year term, his decision to switch to the Republican party rather than fight for his constituents as the Democratic party member for he was elected will likely be damaging to North Alabamians for years to come. It would be no different if he were to have switched from the Republican to Democratic party.

How ineffective… er, effective can a congressman be without a staff?

Oh… I forgot.

That’s Parker Griff-switch, MD.

“I am a Blue Dog Democrat. I must align myself with the Republican Party.”

“I am a Blue Dog Democrat. I must align myself with the Republican Party.” – Parker Griffith, M.D., Representative, Alabama 5th congressional district

By now, the news of Alabama Congressional Representative Parker Griffith’s decision to divorce himself from the party that elected him and adulterate with Republicans, is all over the Internet. Doubtless, it will be mentioned on teevee talk shows, and their even more mindless radio counterparts. The Tennessee Valley is definitely abuzz with the news.

But, it will be in passing.

That’s “passing, ” as in “passing gas,” or “passing stool.”

And that’s exactly what it is – Parker Griffith’s passing.

He will pass from this life, into political oblivion. Having made his move, he has damaged the 5th Congressional District and effectively put a knife into the aorta – the main blood vessel – of everything in the district for which he previously worked, including most notably, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.

The local newspaper in the seat of his district,