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So my representative in Washington is switching from the Democratic Party to the Republicans? Shock!

I am SHOCKED, I say, that a man who pandered to teabaggers at health care town halls with Soylent Green death panels and immigration hysteria, openly advocated removing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and who boasts an impressive seven percent progressive rating versus a mere 33% conservative rating, has turned coat. Whodathunkit?

With Griffith, disingenuous politics are a given. He’s cut from the George Wallace mold. He can’t even be honest about his reasons: speaking to POLITICO, Griffith made the case that Obama’s cancellation of a missile shield was his proximate cause for the switch. Sure, the strategic choice of a sea-based system closer to Iran did take contracts away from Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, at the center of his district, and direct them to other states. But that was in September — why do this now?

More likely is the explanation that Griffith has never actually been a Democrat. He voted against the Lily Ledbetter Act, every version of health care reform, and the stimulus bill, while actively working against the union workers who put him over the top.

If the man is starting to sound like a closet Republican finally going home, then you’re getting the picture.

Griffith’s latest move is all about cutting off his right flank. He’s a first-term representative elected by a razor-thin margin over Republican Wayne Parker, a wingnut among wingnuts who (rumor has it) will run again.* In becoming the GOP incumbent, Griffith hopes to cut off his main opponent and face an empty Democratic field.

But good luck with that strategy in the age of Teabag Terror. Red State’s Eric Erickson has already declared him persona non grata:

We should now hope him [sic] be an extremely endangered Republican in a primary. We will not fix the GOP’s problems if we keep allowing people who are not one of us to suddenly switch the letter next to their name and magically become one of us.

How ironic, how deeply delicious, would it be to see Griffith embrace the Teabag Terror only to get crushed? That vision is all the sweeter when you realize that Griffith’s politics have never been those of a Democrat or even a Republican.

Griffith has always been about Griffith.

It’s in the way this oncologist speaks of tort reform as a magic silver bullet to solve the health care crisis. It’s plainly etched in the career path of a doctor who made his sizable fortune by embracing the trend towards patients-as-profit-centers. It’s in the spectacle of Griffith throwing red meat at Norton Auditorium in August.

It’s in his embrace of the party that paid for this disgusting ad used against him (h/t to GottaLaff):

Anyone who would want to belong to that kind of politics is not a Democrat or even a Blue Dog, but a self-serving hypocrite. Alabama progressives are actually better off without him, and that’s sad.

*UPDATE: Apparently my information on other GOP candidates is out-of-date. From POLITICO:

Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks will be remaining in the race, according to his campaign manager Bruce Tucker, who called Griffith’s party switch “a desperate political move.”

Also, the Rush Limbaugh of Huntsville has spoken:

“He’s a liar. Michael Steele should be ashamed of himself. The NRCC should be ashamed of itself for not coming out and immediately repudiating this guy. He was unacceptable a year ago and he’s acceptable now? A year ago, they were saying this guy was a murderer.”

Teabaggers are so predictable. Too bad Griffith couldn’t predict their rejection.