{"id":4357,"date":"2005-06-03T09:58:06","date_gmt":"2005-06-03T13:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4357.html"},"modified":"2005-06-03T09:58:06","modified_gmt":"2005-06-03T13:58:06","slug":"we-can-only-hope-hell-be-the-first-of-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/we-can-only-hope-hell-be-the-first-of-many\/","title":{"rendered":"We can only hope he’ll be the first of many"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter how often they happen, I never tire of stories on life-long Republicans who have grown so saddened by their party’s shift to the far right that they become Dems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Calling Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick a “DeLay Disciple” and decrying the Republican Party’s move to the right, former Republican Bucks County [Pa.] commissioner Andy Warren on Wednesday announced he has become a Democrat and is not ruling out a run for office.<\/p>\n

Warren, the longest-serving commissioner in county history and now head of the regional state transportation office, said he switched his party registration over the weekend. <\/p>\n

The change comes, Warren said, after years of watching the national Republican Party move further and further to the right.<\/p>\n

“When one finds that his philosophy is so out of step with the organization, you either sit silently by, hypocritically, or you do something about it,” he said. “It was time to move on. So I did.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those who believe Tom DeLay’s problems are just a Beltway phenomenon, it’s worth noting that The Hammer has played a large part in this example in Pennsylvania.
\n
\nIn switching parties, Warren criticized Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R), whom Warren had helped elect in the recent past, describing him as “far more a ‘DeLay disciple’ than a representative of Bucks County residents.”<\/p>\n

When asked for a response, did Fitzpatrick’s office defend DeLay and explain why the congressman’s support for the embattled Majority Leader is good for the district? No, Fitzpatrick ran in the opposite direction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick was unavailable for comment. His chief of staff, Mike Conallen, however, disputed that Fitzpatrick is under DeLay’s thumb.<\/p>\n

“One only has to look at his voting record to see that he has demonstrated independence,” Conallen said. “Congressman Fitzpatrick has differed starkly with Majority Leader DeLay.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s almost comical. Tom who? DeLay? Never heard of him. In fact, I don’t remember even meeting him. I certainly don’t vote with him. Please don’t vote me out of office because of him.<\/p>\n

When an incumbent Republican, who won by 13 points last year, goes out of him way to insist he’s not with DeLay, it’s a helpful reminder of DeLay’s ongoing problems. For that matter, the more DeLay’s conduct helps people desert the GOP, the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter how often they happen, I never tire of stories on life-long Republicans who have grown so saddened by their party’s shift to the far right that they become Dems. Calling Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick a “DeLay Disciple” and decrying the Republican Party’s move to the right, former Republican Bucks County [Pa.] commissioner Andy Warren […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}