April 9, 2010

Dear Mr. Crispen:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Employee Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (H.R. 3017). I understand your concerns regarding this matter and I thank you for taking the opportunity to make your opinion known to me.

As you may know, H.R. 3017 was introduced by U.S. Representative Barney Frank on June 24, 2009, and is currently pending before several House Committees for review. This measure would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

I oppose this measure because it interferes with the practice of “employment at will.” If this bill becomes a law, it would force employers to justify the termination of any employee. This becomes a problem, because a private business should have the right to hire and fire employees without having to defend these actions before a court of law. I believe that the existing laws in place protect the rights of workers. We currently have laws in this country that protect people from discrimination of race and gender, and require reasonable accommodation of faith practices. H.R. 3017 creates several problems for employers in the private sector, and has the potential to change the hiring and firing practices in the private sector for the worse in my opinion.

Again, I thank you for sharing your views on this issue with me. I assure you that I will keep your concerns in mind as this measure is considered by the House of Representatives. Thanks again for sharing your concerns and I hope you’ll stay engaged. To sign up for email updates please visit the Fifth District’s website at www.Griffith.house.gov.

Sincerely,

Parker Griffith
Member of Congress

Note that Griffith voted against the hate crimes law.

Is Griffith being a good little corporatist, or do we see some old fashioned Southern White guy bigotry?

Since Parker Griffith is going to switch to the GOP, the 2010  election  in the mostly White Alabama 5th District might get interesting.

Griffith refused to campaign for Obama in 2008 or for his Alabama State Senate colleague Vivian Figures who was running against notorious racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. Griffith, a child of segregation, brings the genteel racism card much beloved by Alabamians, while Phillip brings the crazy.

Stock up on popcorn. Kind of a shame they both can’t lose.

It goes beyond the fact that his announced opponent, Les Phillip, is the Alabama Republican Party’s head of minority outreach and can expect massive financial support from national Republican donors and money-laundering PACs.

It goes beyond Alabama Democrats’ disillusionment with Griffith.

As Michael Tomasky pointed out in The Guardian, it’s simple arithmetic.

Last November Griffith beat Wayne Parker by a 51-48% margin. John McCain beat Barack Obama by a 61-38% margin in Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. That’s a 20 percentage point gap.

The Alabasma 5th is so red that Griffith has little chance of surviving even a small deviation from conservative dogma, no matter how big a loon Les Phillip turns out to be. Tom Schaller draws a similar conclusion from a different analysis at 538.

Bottom line: why must Griffith disappoint and betray progressives? He can count.

That’s why I echo Chris Bowers at Open Left: let’s focus on keeping good Democrats. Our time would be better spent in Alabama’s 5th encouraging a crop of real progressives.

Some news from Alabama. Unless I’ve fallen asleep entirely, tomorrow is primary day here. Bud Cramer, our Congressman in Alabama’s 5th District, who’s carried water for the Republicans his entire career, is retiring. His legacy is thst nobody will cry. Republicans didn’t like him, and Democrats didn’t respect him. But he did get us some job in North Alabama. Running for his place on the Democratic side are a Bushbaby tool and a loon. I’m tempted to vote for the loon. In more heartening news, all the Democratic appellate court nominees will probably uphold the law instead of replacing our Constitution with Left Behind.
Potential Democratic challengers for U.S. Senate — this one is interesting — include a woman who might even win this Fall, a guy whose heart’s in the right place but probably doesn’t have two dimes to rub together for the general election, and another loon.

It may not be a nail biter in any of the elections, but we’ve got a chance.