A Democrat’s defection to the GOP: What does it really mean?

President Obama recently signed a disaster declaration for the state of Alabama. But that involved damage from last month’s Tropical Storm Ida and had nothing to do with last week’s defection of a representative from his Democratic Party over to the Republicans.

Parker Griffith, a radiation oncologist in real life, was just elected to the House last year from northern Alabama’s 5th District after the retirement of nine-term Democratic incumbent Bud Cramer. Griffith won by only about 9,000 votes.

Griffith said he had become increasingly uncomfortable with the liberal policies of his party and president, especially the overwhelming spending.

“I believe our nation is at a crossroads,” the 67-year-old Griffith said at an Alabama news conference. “And I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy and drives us further and further into debt.”

In one sense Griffith’s defection is no big deal. It’s one seat fewer for the sizable Democratic majority (now 257-178) and only one seat more for the distinct minority.

But on another level such a local decision could have wider significance.

Griffith becomes the first House member of the party of Lincoln to represent that area since Reconstruction. It leaves Alabama with only two Democrats out of seven House members.

It is unusual for a member of the ruling party to willingly join a minority.

And does it indicate trouble is simmering for President Obama among so-called Blue Dog Democrats -- fourscore moderates and conservatives whose constituents are not as liberal as the crowd running Washington?

Those constituents get their say in November, Obama’s first midterm election, when history suggests the White House party loses seats in Congress (except for George W. Bush in 2002 and FDR in 1934).

Several House moderates will be retiring next year.

That, along with a growing number of poll respondents identifying themselves as Republican, has given the GOP hope of making considerable gains come November -- though perhaps not on the order of the 1994 “Republican Revolution” in the middle of President Clinton’s first term, when control of both houses changed hands.

Now add to the 2010 political mix an increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan and stubborn double-digit unemployment, leaving Obama Democrats with the campaign slogan “Not as Bad as It Could Be.”

Saving cents with common sense

Her name is Nancy Fichtner. Normally she works at the VA Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colo.

But last week Fichtner was at the White House with her children, receiving an award from President Obama.

This being the federal government, the award has a cute acronym: the SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award.

The contest began this year when Obama asked federal employees for their cost-saving ideas.

About 38,000 proposals came in, most passed along to their agencies for implementation.

Officials winnowed them down to the final four and put them to an online poll that attracted almost 85,000 votes.

The three runner-ups: make Social Security appointments online, stop double-inspecting HUD housing, direct-deposit national forest fees.

And the winner was Fichtner, who noticed that Veterans Affairs hospitals were discarding patients’ medicine upon discharge.

Her idea was elegantly simple, yet a potential windfall: Let patients take their remaining meds home instead of charging the VA to fill new prescriptions.

In presenting the award to Fichtner, Obama said federal agencies were on track to save $19 billion through improvements to contracting and acquisition practices.

andrew.malcolm@latimes.com

Johanna Neuman writes for The Times.

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