Rep. Parker Griffith joins Republican Party

Ezra Klein:

In substantive terms, I'm not particularly surprised that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, is joining the Republicans. Barack Obama got 37 percent in Griffith's district, and Griffith himself voted against the budget, the stimulus, cap and trade, financial regulation, heath-care reform, and talked about voting against making Nancy Pelosi speaker. When you've got a guy from a Republican district who votes like a Republican and is facing an election where Republicans are likely to win back marginal seats, it's not that difficult to predict what's about to happen.

But the optics of these things are bad for Democrats, and it's more evidence that 2010 is going to be a Republican year. More specifically for health-care reform, Griffith is a radiation oncologist, and the GOP is going to use his switch to whip up a doctors-against-health-care story. That might work, but only because the media isn't always that bright. Last night, the American Medical Association -- which is the largest doctor's association -- endorsed the Senate bill. The most recent major poll I've seen of doctors was released by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation in September, and it showed that doctors not only support health-care reform, but they also support its more liberal ideas, like the public option and Medicare buy-in.

Say what you will about Griffith, but a freshman congressman from Alabama who's terrified about his reelection is not really a representative sample of the medical community.

Posted via email from Jim Nichols