ABC News is reporting that “Former Congressman Jim Leach — an Iowa Republican who, as chair of the House Banking Committee, investigated the Whitewater scandal — endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, officially announcing his intention during a conference call launching “Republicans for Obama,” a group that is designing a Web site contrasting the records of the presidential candidates.”
Why? Leach explains:
“An awful lot of Republicans are more than slightly disgruntled at the direction of the country, more than slightly disappointed at the large deficits and at our foreign policy adventurism. This is the first time I have ever endorsed a Democrat but I think we’re at a juncture in our history that we’ve got to put the national interest ahead of the party interest.”
The ABC story also notes that Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman is backing McCain. Apparently, “13 percent of Democrats say they’re likely to vote for McCain; 13 percent of Republicans prefer Obama.”
Interesting, huh?
