McCloskey makes it official - he's a Democrat

Lifelong Republican, Marine veteran and former congressman Pete McCloskey has left the GOP and registered with the Democratic Party, the Contra Costa Times reports on its politics blog. McCloskey says he is disgusted with the "succession of ethical scandals, congressmen taking bribes and abuse of power by both the Republican House leadership and the highest appointees of the White House. ... A pox on (Republicans) and their values."

He wrote to his supporters in an email:

"I was proud to serve with Republicans like Gerry Ford, the first George Bush and Bob Dole. In 1994, however, Newt Gingrich brought a new kind of Republicanism to power, and the election of George W. Bush in 2000 has led to wholly new concept of governance. The bureaucracy has mushroomed in size and power. The budget deficits have become astronomical. Our historical separation of church and state has been blurred. ... The single cardinal principle of political science, that power corrupts, has come to apply not only to Republican leaders like Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney and John Doolittle, but to a succession of White House officials and appointees. The stench of Jack Abramoff has permeated much of the Washington Republican establishment."

McCloskey is best known as the anti-war Republican who ran against Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential primary. He also co-authored the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which Nixon signed. Last year, he attempted to unseat GOP Rep. Richard Pombo in the Republican primary, but lost that race as well and backed the Democrat, (who won.)

He also faced criticism, to say the least, for giving a speech to a group of Holocaust deniers. In the speech to the Institute for Historical Review, McCloskey used the phrase, "the commonly accepted concept of what occurred during the Second World War in the so-called Holocaust." Dan Schnur has more here about the anti-Republican Republican who is now a Democrat.

(Photo: National Archives and Records Administration)