Flashback: GOP Accused Griffith Of Abusing Cancer Patients, Cheering For Radical Islam

Nice catch TPM.

I'm sure the GOP will welcome him with open arms. More G-O-hyPocrisy. Just like Mark Sanford, David Vitter, John Ensign.

Wrong for America. Right for the Republican Party. I believe that's a tautology.

Yeah, Griffith seemed like a pretty reprehnsible politician to begin with. This just diminishes his profile further.

Regarding his switch, it's particularly interesting:

The AL-5 has a Cook rating of R+12, which makes it a pretty safe Republican district EXCEPT for the fact that it's a district that has never willingly voted a Republican to Congress. Since its creation in 1833, the only time a GOP representative was elected was in 1866, due to Reconstruction. Guy lost his bid for re-election in 1868 and ridiculously conservative Dems have held the seat since. Griffith is an old-school Deep South Dem, the kind that infuriates the party by blocking anything that might improve the lives of anyone that lives outside the district...while also pissing off Republicans by requesting obscene amounts of federal assistance. Either Griffith gets knocked off by a "real" Republican in the primary, or a Blue Dog knocks him off in the general; he's not winning re-election as a Republican.

Great dirty campaign already in place This guy sounds like somebody you'd love to see run against you

Does anyone know if he was one of Rahm's candidates?

I'm a Progressive Democrat, and I saw firsthand how he treated cancer patients--my Dad was one of them. Dad was dying of cancer in Humana hospital in Huntsville, AL, in the mid-1980s. Until the day I die, I will have the vision of him lying there with unspeakable suffering while the nurses tried to reach Parker Griffith for pain medicines. My sister and I were at the nurse's station, and after hours of trying, they finally reached him. We could hear Griffith on the other end of the line yelling at the nurse because he didn't want to be interrupted during dinner. He was so self-important, he couldn't be bothered to get Daddy any relief. One nurse quit her job because she couldn't stand to see patients suffer. She had worked at Sloan Kettering, and we could tell that she hated Griffith. I personally think Parker Griffith is a snake in the grass. I wrote him and told him when he was running for office how upset I was at him and that he should work to get good healthcare reform. I called one of the former staffers in Washington of the Senator who was a family member (I still have contact with the staffer). I wanted to make sure that my letter was received by Griffith. Guess what Griffith did? He had the BALLS to write me back that only tort reform would save the healthcare problem. I still have his letter. In other words, if people such as I who had their families suffer at his hands wouldn't sue, there would be no problem. The Republicans can have him. I will never, ever get the picture of Daddy in agony out of my head. So if anyone out there knows Griffith, you tell him that what goes around, comes around, and I hope he gets the same treatment he afforded my father.

The Tort reform angle is mostly bull****. Here in Wisconsin we have some of the strictest malpractice caps in the US; coupled with close to highest cost medical insurance in the US as well. Case Closed.