Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama switched parties five months ago, running from the Pelosi machine into the warm embrace of the House GOP. The latter’s quick support of Griffith “was a mistake,” says Mo Brooks, the Republican who beat Griffith last night in a three-way GOP primary. “Though [House Republicans] were well-intentioned, they didn’t have the base of knowledge that we have here in the fifth congressional district.” Still, he says, he “won’t hold a grudge.”

Brooks, a member of the Madison County Commission, says that President Obama is “absolutely a socialist,” pointing to the government takeover of “General Motors, AIG, and the banks as proof that this administration does not believe in free enterprise.” The Obama administration and House Democrats, he worries, “prefer socialism.”

Brooks says “the trust issue was just as important as policy” in his primary fight with Griffith. “People saw [Griffith] and did not want a leader who flip-flopped so easily on core public-policy issues . . . his party-switching was not the key, but an important part . . . people saw the switch as an example of a politician casually discarding fundamental beliefs. People did not find him to be sincere in his new conservative positions.”