Ritter? Never heard of her!

First off: yes! Everything we know about blogging we stole from Illin Smith -- thus the unoriginal title. Can we move on now, please?

Speaking of moving on, State Rep. Allan Ritter announced today that he will be leaving the Democratic Party to join the Republicans. We are just... completely and totally shocked! We haven't been this surprised since Ricky Rick jumped ship back in '89. (We were so upset that we refused to carry our "Rick Perry, Democrat for Texas" lunch pails to 4th grade, ever again!) Or maybe since Hopson did it earlier this year. Or maybe since Arron Pena (pronounced "I Hate My Own Race") announced late last week that he is taking the matter of switching parties "under consideration."

So, can you guess what PODs are pissed about today? Traitors? Scallywags? Actually, no. Many elected officials are self-preservationists; that's no secret and we don't necessarily blame them -- chicken shit or not -- for changing parties when they find their values or district demographics shifting, or what the fuck e*ver.

What we are pissed about is people who never had the balls to be part of the team in the first place. People who claim to be on our side, but never really put any effort into it. You know these people: they wear Rangers regalia all season long, until the playoffs come around, and then they bust out the NY Spankees gear. (This year not withstanding.)

Allan Ritter was never a Democrat to begin with. At the end of last session, when real Democrats were fighting to protect minority and elderly voters from voter discrimination legislation, the Allan Ritters of the world were walking around bitching and moaning and pouting. They weren't pouting because they thought there was a lot of other important legislation to get to in the waning days of session, they were pouting because they thought that killing voter discrimination legislation would put them at risk back home in their districts.

Let us tell you something: when you put a big "D" next to your name, you make a commitment to some basic principles, implied or otherwise; and defending Constitutional rights of all voters is one of those principles. If you didn't have the balls to come out and fight the good fight to begin with, we didn't want you anyway. Think: Alex Rodriguez.