Griffith departure points to trouble for Democrats

Politico:

The outlook for the 2010 elections just grew dimmer for Democrats, with the abrupt announcement Tuesday that Rep. Parker Griffith, an Alabama freshman, was jumping to the Republican Party.

While Griffith’s departure from the now 257-member Democratic Caucus will have almost no impact on the balance of power in the House, his party switch highlighted the growing unease among the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable members about the party’s ambitious national agenda and its role in contributing to the deteriorating political environment in which they must run for reelection.

Publicly, congressional Democrats mostly remained silent, a reflection of the unexpected timing—Griffith blindsided House leadership with the news and had even attended Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pre-recess holiday party—and a desire to downplay the significance of his exit.

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Still, privately Democrats acknowledged the announcement came as a serious blow to a party that, over the last several election cycles, had made significant inroads in conservative southern districts like Griffith’s, which delivered 61 percent of the vote to John McCain in 2008 but nevertheless managed to elect a Democrat to an open House seat.

The situation is compounded by the worrisome recent uptick in retirements in politically competitive districts—among them veteran Southern Democrats like Tennessee Reps. John Tanner and Bart Gordon—and comes amidst troubling polling data for various Democratic incumbents.

“There’s a real backlash in the conservative districts against Washington and the president,” said one senior Democratic operative. “In any right-leaning district…you’re going to see the incumbent looking at numbers they’ve never seen before.”

“I just think it really shows the moderates feel they don’t have a voice in the party, they don’t like where we are going as a party, and that should be troubling for Democrats,” said another senior Democratic strategist. “Less than a year into a Washington that is controlled by Democrats, they’ve lost hope, they feel disillusioned, and they don’t think there’s anything to stick around for.”

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It is obvious that the Democrat agenda is being rejected by a majority of voters, but they feel like they have to push it anyway or lose their kook base. In doing so it is very likely they are losing their majority.