Paul Rodriguez

As FNC's Sean Hannity devoted his show Hannity on Thursday evening to the plight of California farmers who are suffering unemployment because the federal government is withholding water from their crops in favor of saving endangered fish, Hannity began the show, specially titled "The Valley That Hope Forgot," by interviewing comedian and former Democrat Paul Rodriguez, chairman of the California Latino Water Coalition. Rodriguez, who last year supported Barack Obama but famously turned GOP after Democrats refused to help him and other farmers obtain water for their crops, made a plea for help to President Obama on Hannity's show:

Mr. President, with all due respect, we pray that you will read our letter and look at our dilemma. We don't want you to give us a loan. We didn't do anything wrong. We did everything right. We grew more food than anybody else with less water. And for that, our reward was you cut the water off. Come on, what's up?

In recent months, actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez has made known his defection from the Democratic party because of the party's lack of interest in helping drought-stricken farmers like himself in California who have had water denied to them by court order under the Endangered Species Act to save an endangered fish, the delta smelt. As he addressed the 2009 Annual California Republican Assembly Convention in May, Rodriguez complained that the fundraising support he has given to environmental groups in the past has come back to hurt him and his family: "I always saw myself as an environmentalist. ... I’ve funded many of these things, I guess, because I’ve performed for them. Every time they call, you go there not really knowing what you’re backing, not knowing that those dollars are going to turn around and, and hurt me, hurt those I love the most." The complete audio of Rodriguez's speech can be found here.

As he recounted that environmentalists compare the delta smelt to the canary in a coal mine, he quipped that environmentalists treat the farmer like the canary. Rodriguez quoted his uncle who used to be a coal miner: "The job of the canary is to, you know, we were digging and we’re looking at the canary, we’re digging and looking, when the canary dies, man, you run the hell out of there! That canary’s job is to die so you live, see?”

He continued: "And that really got to me, and I said, 'They got it wrong. They want the farmer to die and the canary to live.'”