As Charlie Chan said: “A long journey starts with the first step”.

Well, the first step towards the goal of removing the Democrat Party from the reins of power in Congress, and potentially relegating them to their smallest minority status in generations, officially starts today. As Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL) has announced that he will switch to the GOP.

From Politico: (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin)

POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican.

According to a senior GOP aide familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place in this afternoon in his home district in northern Alabama.

Griffith’s party switch comes on the eve of a pivotal congressional health care vote and will send a jolt through a Democratic House Caucus that has already been unnerved by the recent retirements of a handful of members who, like Griffith, hail from districts that offer prime pickup opportunities for the GOP in 2010.

The switch represents a coup for House Republican leadership, which had been courting Griffith since he publicly criticized Democratic leadership in the wake of raucous town halls over the summer.

Griffith, who captured the seat in a close 2008 open seat contest, will become the first Republican to hold the historically Democratic, Huntsville-based district. A radiation oncologist who founded a cancer treatment center, Griffith plans to blast the Democratic health care bill as a prime reason for his decision to switch parties—and is expected to cite his medical background as his authority on the subject.

This dovetails well with the growing wave of Yellow Dog Democrats who are stepping down rather than be flogged at the polls:

From USA Today:

WASHINGTON — Veteran Tennessee Rep. Bart Gordon on Monday became the fourth centrist Democrat in three weeks to announce his retirement, leaving his party with another tough-to-defend seat in next year’s elections.

“It’s going to be a difficult cycle for Democrats,” said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.

Gordon is one of 11 Democrats who have announced they will not run for re-election. On the Republican side, 12 House members are retiring or running for another office, such as Delaware’s Mike Castle, who has announced his bid for the Senate seat long held by Vice President Biden. Rothenberg rates seven of the Democratic open seats as potentially changing parties, compared with three Republican open seats.

“We have more swing districts overall,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who heads his party’s congressional campaign committee. “We’ve said from Day One that this is going to be a very challenging cycle.”

Both parties work hard to keep retirements to a minimum, because incumbents generally have an advantage in winning elections. In 1994, the retirement of 28 Democrats proved the harbinger of a Republican takeover of the House.

Outside of Pelosi and Bernie Sanders, I would not want to be a Democrat who is up for re-election next year. There is likely to be electoral carnage, the likes of which may never have been seen before.

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