Newest Republican Loses Staff

And good riddance to them as they apparently long for the good old days when Alabama was represented by racist Democrats:

In an unusual press release announcing the resignation of his legislative staff, former aides to party-switching Rep. Parker Griffith, who is now a Republican, wrote that he had "abandoned the legacy of conservative leadership" provided by, among others, Alabama's segregationist Civil Rights-era Senate delegation.

"Alabama's Fifth District has deserved and has benefited from great Democratic conservative leadership since Reconstruction. And until now they had it," his former chief of staff, Sharon Wheeler, said in a press release statement signed by 10 other departing staffers and circulated by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "But Parker Griffith has abandoned the legacy of conservative leadership provided by Bud Cramer, Ronnie Flippo, Bob Jones, Howell Heflin, Jim Allen, Lister Hill, John Sparkman, Big Jim Folsom, and so many more."

Most of those Alabama Democrats are not associated with segregation, but Sens. Lister Hill and John Sparkman were both regular votes against civil rights legislation, and both signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto that condemned the "judicial usurpation" of Brown v. Board of Education and promised to use "all lawful means" to fight the ruling that put court power behind the integration of public institutions.

It's not surprising that the staff members quit. Congressional staffers tend to be even more hardline party hacks than the congressmen themselves, so I'm sure they're more concerned with being seen as good Democrats than loyal staffers.

Right now there are more Dem staff jobs on Capitol Hill....but that will likely change in another year. These people may have hissy-fitted themselves right out of a career.