In the run-up to Christmas – amidst the the flurry of Senate health care deliberations and under a record Washington December snowfall – freshman Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith, elected as a Democrat, dropped a bombshell. After a mere year in Congress, Griffith announced he’s switching parties.

Clearly skittish about his reelection prospects with a (D) next to his name, Parker Griffith seems to think he can’t lose if he crosses the aisle. Griffith’s North Alabama district rejected President Obama resoundingly last November. Gleeful conservative commentators lumped his defection within the trend of House Democrats who have recently announced they won’t face voters again in their conservative, McCain-voting constituencies, where poll numbers for President Obama and his agenda have plummeted. But Griffith offer a unique case, as instructive in the long-term as it may be difficult to draw immediate trends from.

Griffith is not one of those Southern pols with deep roots in the Democratic Party, at least not in elective office.