The Dog Days Of Summer: Stray “Blue” Dogs, A Summer Breeze, And Painting With Your Eyes

LuckyBogey's Blog ^ | August 21, 2009 | LuckyBogey

[luckybogey]

The WH and Congress have severely overestimated the charm of President Obama. They believe that when the President speaks the public all feel a tingle running up their legs... The public is smarter than for which the bureaucrats in Washington give them credit…

In the old days, when Americans took civics, and took civic life seriously, every schoolboy/schoolgirl knew what a yellow dog was. The phrase, which almost certainly came from Alabama more than three-quarters of a century ago, grew out of the notion that some Southerners would (gladly) vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket. In short: A yellow dog was a party loyalist.

Today’s Blue Dogs don’t look quite so loyal. There are, by last count, 52 of them, and they are fiscal conservatives within a party that hasn’t always preached, and seldom practiced, fiscal conservatism. They think of themselves as centrists, and given the broad range of ideology in the United States that exists today in comparison to decades past, that’s a pretty fair estimation. But in recent weeks these Blue Dogs have been angry, snarling canines...

Univ of Va political expert Larry Sabato says that some Dogs are actually liberals with sympathy for Speaker Pelosi. They joined the coalition to make themselves more appealing to a broader cross-section of voters, he says. Last year, six Blue Dogs voted with liberals on economic matters more than 70% of the time, according to the National Journal. Another nine Blue Dogs voted with liberals on economic matters more than 60% of the time...

The GOP is “the ‘Just Say No’ party,” says Blue Dog Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah. The Blue Dogs, he says, are populists — not ideologues — and they’re out to improve bills, not block them. Their focus is fiscal responsibility...

[luckybogey]

Posted in Bloggers Section. Blog post includes: The New Pundit: The Dog Days Of Summer Are Hard On The Politicians — Seals & Crofts (Summer Breeze) — Real Clear Politics & Barrons: The (Blue) Dog Days of Summer — Museo Nacional del Prado: Spanish Painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923).

The Museo del Prado is presenting the largest and most important retrospective ever to be devoted to the work of Joaquín Sorolla, the most internationally celebrated Spanish painter of the XIX century. The exhibition includes more than 100 paintings by the artist and will offer a comprehensive overview of his finest works, among them all of his great masterpieces.