After the 1994 elections, which repudiated the Clintons' big shift leftward, there was hype, fear, hatred, and loathing by the usual crowd, especially in Washington and in elite circles elsewhere, about the rise of the Republican Party, a revival of conservatism, and the so-called “Republican Revolution.” On the other hand, there _was_ a populist-center-right reaction against the leftism outside the mainstream that did propel the GOP to its best position in years (and wrecked the position and expectations of Democrats and other liberals, who found the election results as shocking as surprising).

What you saw in that post-1994 Republican rise to power was a number of people switching party affiliations, from Democratic to Republican, and the additional people that changed from Democratic to Independent.

Given the wreckage of the Republican Party and the surprising amount of power that the Democrats now possess (so much that the risk to many libs and Dems is to overlook how strongly emplaced the Dems are in Washington — the Economist currently states that the Dems are in a stronger position than they have been since the end of World War II, and this is _before_ at least four GOP Senatorial retirements to happen soon), don't be surprised if:

McCain converts from a Republican to officially independent party-affiliation status (he's too cagey to honestly become a Democrat);

Other “moderate” Republicans become Democrats (which RINOs such as Snowe, Collins, Specter, etc., should already have done).

Just wait and see if there are “moderate” Republicans who change to Democrats or who become independent. (If they become Democrats they may have more say in how Congress is run given which party is likely to be in power for at least the next few years.)