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August 07, 2004

Move Over Rodney

Another day and another Democratic party switcher. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana switched with no time left for a Democrat to qualify (we wouldn't have won anyway, I don't think...). Of the many terrible things about Dem->Rep party switchers (there aren't many the other way) there is one constant that is most odious. These guys are addicted to the power they've accrued and no bribe or dirty trick is petty enough if it means holding onto that power.

That, or in the case of State Sens. Dan Lee, Don Cheeks, Rooney Bowen and Jack Hill, they usually also aren't very bright. Jack Hill may be Appropriations Chairman, but only in the sense that a hand puppet is actually entertaining a crowd. His ventriloquists are Eric Johnson and Tommie Williams and it's no secret. But he'll be re-elected yet again and can continue to pick up his per diem for another 10 years or so.

Bowen and Lee, well what can you say about them? If Bowen were still a Democrat he'd probably be on his way back for another term. Not that he'd have anything to do with it...the Democratic Party would be running and funding his campaign just like they did in '02 -- something the Republican Party was not willing to do for this dupe. Why pay to have Switch-a-Rooney re-elected when a real Republican could beat him in the primary spending little time and effort?

And Dan Lee? Well, at least he'd make it to the general election instead of having the dual distinctions of being the first governor's floor leader to lose AND to lose in a primary election.

That leaves us with Don Cheeks. He may get lucky, but he faces an uphill battle. Cheeks switched for the pettiest of personal reasons, and the majority Republicans showed how much they respected his decision when they voted en masse against his predatory lending proposal after he had pleaded with them in private and on the floor of the Senate, a rare (and humiliating) rebuke for a committee chairman in the General Assembly. Cheeks has a bit of a race problem, and proving that there is a God, he found himself in a heavily Democratic district that also happens to be majority African-American. He's willing to spend unlimited amounts of his personal fortune (and he'll need to) in order to return to the state Senate, where despite the prestigious and honorable title he is considered a joke. As Sonny Perdue told another state Senator he was wooing to switch parties (who didn't switch) "Cheeks came cheep."

So the duplicitious Rodney Alexanders of the world, and the Republican parties who welcome them into their ranks had better cross their fingers and hope for the best because one way or another party switching almost always comes back to haunt you. Just ask Ann Purcell.

Posted by Chris at August 7, 2004 02:53 PM

Comments

Rodney Alexander? Boooo! Hisss!

Posted by: Jen at August 8, 2004 12:08 PM

Alexander was a Democrat, but he became a Republican. That sounds pretty smart to me.

You know, Chris, since you called the Democrats who became Republicans "not too bright," is it all right to call you names, too? Would it be all right if we called you a "metrosexual?" And would that be an accurate assessment, or not?

Posted by: phillydog at August 9, 2004 01:56 PM

As someone who knows Chris, the term metrosexual definitely does not apply. They guy could not put together an outfit if he tried. And do not even mention "product" and his hair is the same sentence.

Posted by: Josh at August 9, 2004 10:13 PM

It appears somebody here has a crush on the site owner...and I'm not talking about the random extreme pron posters.

Pssst, Phillydog: Just go ahead and ask Chris out already!

Posted by: ajc at August 9, 2004 10:40 PM

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