Is a politician’s decision to switch parties as dastardly a deed as committing a felony, violating an oath of office or just plain being incompetent?

Apparently it is in the eyes of Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, who would add changing political affiliation to those other reasons for forcing a legislator to stand for a recall vote.

McGee’s bill wouldn’t affect Sen. Sam Kitzenberg, whose switch to the Democratic Party last fall after the general election broke a tie in the state Senate and left Republicans fuming. But that turnaround obviously sparked McGee’s measure.

The Montana GOP may have been shocked, but party switching is a relatively common phenomenon, both on the state and national levels. During the second half of the 20th Century, especially, it has happened many times. In the South, it has been usually been Democrat to Republican, often during the civil rights era, while it generally has been the other way around in the Northeast and the Great Lakes states.

Well known switches include U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who became an independent last year after losing the primary to an anti-war Democrat, and U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, who in 2001 switched to an independent and aligned himself with the Democrats, thus briefly giving Democrats control.

Jesse Helms, Trent Lott and Elizabeth Dole once were Democrats, and Howard Dean, of all people, was a Republican in college.

McGee has a point that voters who always favor the candidate of a particular party would feel betrayed when a lawmaker they voted for switches. But opponents of his bill have a point too, like Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Farrell, who said the measure “smacks of politics and sour grapes.”

There are many reasons a politician might move to a new party, but in Kitzenberg’s case, it really shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. He’s been a maverick Republican for years, often voting with the Democrats on certain issues. For those sins, in 2005 he languished in a cramped office deep in the basement of the Capital, banished to what he called “the bowels, the depths, the scary part” of the Capitol by the Republican leadership. This year he’s got a spiffy office, along with Senate Majority Leader Carol Williams, on the third floor where the action is.

All in all, we suspect most voters like a lawmaker with a good independent streak when it comes to a party line. Even when it comes to crossing it all the way.