Althouse: "Obviously we're pissed. I mean let's face it, we put a lot of effort in the 2015 election to elect this man as governor."

August 3, 2017

"Obviously we're pissed. I mean let's face it, we put a lot of effort in the 2015 election to elect this man as governor."

"And we had two more progressive individuals in that primary but we knew that if Jim Justice went out of that primary he could win. So I mean, a lot people are pissed. There's a lot of hurt feelings. People are feeling betrayed right now."

Said a top West Virginia Democratic operative, after hearing that West Virginia Governor is Jim Justice is switching to the Republican Party.

39 comments:

MaxedOutMama said...: I would be too.; 8/3/17, 6:30 PM
holdfast said...: I am sure Arizona Republicans feel the same about John McLame. And he has the indecency to still pretend.; 8/3/17, 6:30 PM
dreams said...: Another pissed off democrat, kind of like another crooked democrat. More of the same.; 8/3/17, 6:32 PM
dreams said...: All those votes they bought and stole.; 8/3/17, 6:33 PM
mockturtle said...: So much winning! :-); 8/3/17, 6:33 PM
Birkel said...: Salt.
Wound.
Apply liberally.; 8/3/17, 6:35 PM
MadisonMan said...: Maybe the Democratic Party should have done something to counter the extreme left wing of the party that's taken over. Then mainstream politicians might find a home with Democrats.; 8/3/17, 6:36 PM
YoungHegelian said...: While I swing heavily towards the Repubs, there's a still a chunk of me that thinks it's part of the code of being a gentleman that ya dance with the one that brung ya.; 8/3/17, 6:37 PM
Birkel said...: YoungHehelian,
The people of West Virginia?; 8/3/17, 6:40 PM
ThreeSheets said...: All those who condemned Arlen Specter will now applaud this man's integrity and all those that praised Arlen Specter will now condemn this man.; 8/3/17, 6:41 PM
dreams said...: "All those who condemned Arlen Specter will now applaud this man's integrity and all those that praised Arlen Specter will now condemn this man."

Bullshit!! Arlen Specter voted against Robert Bork as a Republican, it didn't matter what he claimed to be. Republican or Democrat.; 8/3/17, 6:48 PM
ThreeSheets said...: Nope. Not bs. The hypocrisy from both parties and their partisans reeks. Doesn't matter if it's the filibuster, executive orders, party switching, surveillance of citizens or military action by a President.

It's only OK if my guy does it.

A pox on all of them.; 8/3/17, 7:03 PM
Gahrie said...: It seems to me the outrage isn't so much that he is changing parties....it is the fact that the Democratic leadership gamed the primary to ensure his success, just like the DNC at the national level.; 8/3/17, 7:38 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/3/17, 7:47 PM
Birkel said...: Mingus Jerry,

Is the fact that there are fewer Democrat governors in modern history that bothers you this much? Or is it that there are more Republican governors than ever before in modern history?

I wonder if "flyover country" has noticed the self-annointed elites mocking them.; 8/3/17, 7:50 PM
Kevin said...: I think Trump should also announce he's switching parties, just to watch Democrats' heads explode.; 8/3/17, 7:52 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The democrat party is a corrupt cesspool.... t6hat should cease.; 8/3/17, 7:54 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Everybody wants to join the winning team.; 8/3/17, 8:02 PM
tam said...: Well, Don Surber, a West Virginian blogger had his own response to this:

I do not want Jim Justice in Our Party, Mister President

Democratic Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia ran as a friend of the people and a Trump supporter last fall.

Upon taking office, Justice treated the state taxpayers and the Republican Party like shit.

This was after his rejection of the Republican budget for his own, which included 3 tax increases; 8/3/17, 8:11 PM
rcocean said...: Theoretically, I think any man who changes parties after he gets elected is a back-stabbing scum bag.

You get elected as X, and proclaiming you're a proud remember of party X, and then you change. Oh really? How convenient. Maybe you should have told the voters - and your donors - beforehand.

As a practical matter, its just the same old BS. Anyone who changes from (R) to (D) is a "profile in courage" but from (D) to (R) its "OMG, what a traitor"

So spare me your faux "outrage" - fuck that noise.; 8/3/17, 8:16 PM
mccullough said...: Charlie Crist Redux.; 8/3/17, 8:19 PM
dreams said...: He was a lifelong Republican until 2015 when he decided to run for governor as a Dem., also, Michael Bloomberg was a lifelong Dem until he decided to run for NY mayor as a Republican.; 8/3/17, 8:22 PM
dreams said...: John McCain is in reality a Dem even though he's a longtime Republican.; 8/3/17, 8:25 PM
chickelit said...: What MadisonMan said at 6:36

And ha ha. Let them run those Progressives next time around.; 8/3/17, 8:31 PM
virgil xenophon said...: Sort of an ungentlemanly thing to do, but OTOH Eat your livers Donkeys!; 8/3/17, 9:26 PM
TerriW said...: Heck, Winston Churchill switched parties *twice*.; 8/3/17, 9:38 PM
Achilles said...: Blogger Dickin'Bimbos@Home said...
"The democrat party is a corrupt cesspool.... t6hat should cease."

And the Republican Party isn't?

This guy is a weasel who will do anything to be elected. I wouldn't hesitate to call him a traitor. It isn't like he will do anything for republican voters.; 8/4/17, 12:09 AM
Achilles said...: Blogger mockturtle said...
"So much winning! :-)"

The republicans winning is not the same as us winning.; 8/4/17, 12:13 AM
Michael The Magnificent said...: I am sure Arizona Republicans feel the same about John McLame. And he has the indecency to still pretend.

Perhaps. But McCain has been a leading participant in every gang-of-x-to-backstab-the-gop for as long as I can remember. Someone keeps voting for him, and I cannot believe they aren't glad he is, in fact, doing everything he can to screw over the GOP. I doubt they are unhappy with McCain's performance. Quite the contrary, really. I fully expect that they appreciate that he campaigns as a Republican, and then turns his coat inside out and votes with the Democrats.

To John McCain and his supporters, if a few Republicans aren't willing to cross over and vote with the lock-step voting Democrats, well, then it isn't bi-partisan enough.

McCain can ESAD.; 8/4/17, 12:47 AM
tim maguire said...: Understandable, to some degree it's a betrayal of the voters. It would be more ethical to change parties at the start of a political campaign, but at least he's not doing it right after an election, as some politicians have done.

If he's running the state the same way regardless of party, then it shouldn't matter. Unless the good of the party is more important than the good of the state, then it might matter.; 8/4/17, 5:15 AM
Big Mike said...: The "top West Virginia Democrat operative" might be feeling hurt, but it's nothing next to how those of us in purple Congressional districts feel after working for and contributing to Republican candidates, only to have them vote against AHCA and, except for her vote for Ryan as Speaker, basically against the GOP platform once they get to downtown DC.; 8/4/17, 5:56 AM
tim maguire said...: Mingus Jerry, your comment was refuted before you even made it. If you're going to talk about other people's posts, you might want to read a few of them first.; 8/4/17, 6:07 AM
Mary Beth said...: It shouldn't bother anyone who says they vote for the person, not the party. (It's just a coincidence that the person always belongs to the same party.); 8/4/17, 7:21 AM
Skipper said...: Betrayed, huh? Join the club.; 8/4/17, 7:50 AM
Kevin said...: It shouldn't bother anyone who says they vote for the person, not the party.

Too funny!; 8/4/17, 8:33 AM
Todd said...: It is a pretty disrespectful thing to do to those that supported you BUT one could argue that [especially] for governors, what difference does it make? You should have been voting for the individual due to their proposals, plans, policies, track-record, etc. Whether they have a D or an R after their name should not [really] matter as much as the other things. I understand for many people the D/R is shortcut to expected positions (so they don't actually have to work to understand what the office seeker stands for) but that is [apparently] not in stone (see McCain).

Which is more honest? To keep the D but act as an R or to change the D to an R?

The right answer is NEITHER! You should run as you will be or go independent if you can't stand the party platform. That is what someone with integrity would do. Once you are elected, the only honest fix is to either step down and/or call for a re-do with you running as your new party. That does not matter if it is D to R or R to D. In both cases it is intellectual/ethical fraud.; 8/4/17, 8:36 AM
MikeR said...: Can someone explain to me what difference it makes which party a governor is - after he's elected? Have his policies changed as a result?; 8/4/17, 8:37 AM
Matt Sablan said...: "Can someone explain to me what difference it makes which party a governor is - after he's elected? Have his policies changed as a result?"

-- In a rational world, one wouldn't change their party without their policies changing. There are radical differences between the two parties, even if there is some overlap.

At the very least, it is a giant sunk cost for the party that elected them, since governors especially, may be being groomed for party leadership roles or a shot at the White House (probably not this guy though? Don't really know WV politics.); 8/4/17, 8:46 AM
TestTube said...: Do I see opportunity here?

If the Democrats get truly desperate, perhaps they will actually listen to people outside their hard-left base.

Heck, maybe we can get some Democrats elected who will repeal Obamacare. A better chance of that happening than the Republicans ever doing it.; 8/4/17, 10:11 AM