Nan:"Be gone with you, semi-conservative scum!"
Mike:"Hello up there, can anybody hear me??? "
Posted on 11/15/2006 4:06:34 PM PST by wagglebee
For a dozen years, the Democratic conservatives known as Blue Dogs have been baying at the moon, ignored by Republicans and tolerated by their more liberal Democratic colleagues. Now, these House lawmakers say that is about to change.
Republicans "did not lose their seats to liberal Democrats" in last weeks elections, said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. "Republicans lost their seats to Blue Dog Democrats."
"We'll have a lot to say about what passes and what doesn't" when the 110th Congress convenes in January with Democrats in control for the first time in 12 years, said Ross, new communications director for the caucus.
With the addition of nine newly elected freshmen, the Blue Dogs claim 44 members, nearly 20 percent of the incoming Democratic majority. They will be led by Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., and include Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., in line to become the next Agriculture Committee chairman.
The Blue Dogs were formed in 1994 after Republicans swept the long-entrenched Democrats from power. They tend to be social conservatives on such issues as abortion. But their big issue is fiscal discipline - balancing the budget and reducing the federal debt.
Many in the group are from the South, and the group took its name from the old adage that southerners would vote for yellow dog if he were on the Democratic ballot. A blue dog, they decided, was a moderate or conservative "choked blue" by the Democrats in the years leading up to 1994.
Already, leaders from both parties are courting their votes. Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, a California liberal, has promised to make "paygo," a Blue Dog-backed principle that any new spending be paid for with cuts in other programs or new revenues, one of her first legislative goals.
"Leader Pelosi looks forward to working with the Blue Dogs in the 110th Congress," said Jennifer Crider, Pelosi's spokeswoman. "They are important voices in our diverse caucus."
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who is running for the position of Republican leader in the next Congress, listed cooperation with the Blue Dogs as part of his platform.
"We also will attempt to restart the old GOP-Boll Weevil coalition that proved so successful in the 1980s to advance President Reagan's revolution," Pence said. "There are Blue Dog Democrats that want to balance the budget, address our nation's abounding debt, strengthen Social Security and protect life and marriage. Our minority will look for opportunities to work with them when there is agreement."
Americans, said Stephanie Herseth, a Blue Dog Democrat from heavily Republican South Dakota, "are looking for leadership from the center." She said they will seek consensus with other Democrats while at the same time will "certainly continue to work with our Republican friends in a bipartisan way."
They'll become "Nancy Boys" soon enough.
Note to "blue dog Dems"
Become a `Nancy boy', or become a `two year wonder'.
Bottom line, end of discussion.
Well, I hope the best for them all.
They will need all the help they can get.
This will happen when h3ll freezes over.
Nan:"Be gone with you, semi-conservative scum!"
Mike:"Hello up there, can anybody hear me??? "
The Blue Dogs are about to get "fixed". If they want a larger role they will have to cross the aisle.
This is definately gonna be a fun two years.
The only problem I have with this idea is that "new revenues" are always defined as "new taxes." This despite the indisputable facts that fed. tax revenues are setting records after GW's tax cuts. The liberal Dems (i.e., most of 'em) always leave the stimulus effect of tax cuts out of the equation, just like they always ignore the supressive effect of taxes increases.
(BTW, they aren't stupid -- they know the facts. The reason they ignore the facts is simple: The left is more concerned with owning a bigger part of the economic pie than in the size of the pie or even the size of the govt's cut of it. It's all about control and power, plain and simple, and owning more of the pie -- even a smaller pie -- gives you more control over how it is divied up.)
Right. He'll end up the junior member on the Urinals and Septic Systems sub-sub-sub committee if he doesn't learn to be a nancy-boy quick.
Watch Ross very closely. He learned his politics at the foot of Winston Bryant in the shadow of Bill Clinton.
Ross' high-profile commentary this past week is very curious, as is Carville's. Publicity seeking is normal for Carville but quite out-of-character for Ross.
I suspect that both men are serving the same master.
Jumps are made to the winning side, not the losing one. Even someone who gets slapped down regularly does better than those who always get slapped down. Soon, you'll be hearing cries from them of, "thank you, may I have another?"
"a bigger role"
Yeah, they can do more than just run for the liberal'scoffee.
They can run and pick up the liberal's clothes at the dry cleaners too.
Hey, these guys are for fiscal discipline. Too bad they didn't have much like minded Republican support in the past 6 years.
Sorry, I don't think Pelosi has a clue.
Yep. You would think that fiscal discipline had been totally abandoned.
Good news. Go Mike!
Pelosi has a testicle lock box ready for each one of them. These Blue Balls chumps are a hoot if they think they are going to get "a larger role." They were useful idiots used by Soros, Pelosi and Murtha to get the liberal 'RATS the governmental power that they wanted. They are no longer needed. Same goes for the anti-war, useful idiot chumps. Although Pelosi and her Commie thugs made a promise to the anti-war, college dweebs, the 'RATS aren't going to pull out of Iraq anytime soon. The American public would be all over them like white on rice.
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