Louisiana's Lt. Governor Switches Parties, Joins GOP

BATON ROUGE -- Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle said Tuesday that he has changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican because of his dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama and the administration's recent actions on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Angelle, who has served as Gov. Bobby Jindal's Department of Natural Resources secretary and chief liaison to the Legislature, said he grew disenchanted with the Democratic Party's philosophy of dealing with energy matters, especially the moratorium on drilling that followed the Deepwater Horizon explosion that claimed 11 lives and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf and sensitive coastal estuaries.

He said the scientific studies and investigations into deepwater exploration have indicated the moratorium should have been lifted weeks before it was. Instead, thousand of workers have been left jobless because of the Obama administration's actions.