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Democrats in the Senate may have a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority when healthcare reform comes up for a vote, but at least one Democrat is telling party leaders not to count on him to be the 60th vote. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska told The Hill newspaper: "I'm not going to commit anything at this point in time on procedural votes, neither pro nor con, because it will depend on the circumstances. "I can't make those decisions in advance because it depends on what the bill is and what the circumstances are at the time. Otherwise you're just giving away your...

WHIP COUNT: DEMS LACK THE VOTES Wed Sep 09 2009 17:03:37 ET At least 44 more moderate Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record in opposition to the current health care bill in the House, a Hill source claims. Likewise, at least 57 liberal Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record saying they will vote against a health care bill without a strong public option. Unless multiple Democrats flip on their stated position on health care, Speaker Pelosi lacks the votes to pass a bill through the House on the strength of Democrat votes...

Congressman Charlie Melancon today made official what has been anticipated for some time. He's running for U.S. Senate. "I'm announcing my candidacy for the U.S. Senate to replace David Vitter," Melancon said in a Youtube video he emailed to supporters. He describes himself as an anti-abortion, pro-gun centrist and a member of the "Blue Dog'' caucus of fiscally conservative Democrats in Congress. He doesn't attack Vitter in the announcement, but does say, "Louisiana deserves better." He adds that Louisiana needs "more honest" leadership. Melancon never specifically mentions Vitter's admitted "very serious sin" after his number showed up on the DC...

From an extremely well-placed source in congress: It's game-on against the "Bluedogs".

A key House liberal suggested Thursday that party moderates who've pushed for changes in health care legislation are "brain dead" and out for insurance company campaign donations. Moderate Blue Dog Democrats "just want to cause trouble," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who heads the health subcommittee on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. "They're for the most part, I hate to say brain dead, but they're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda that is not really very useful in this whole process," Stark told reporters on a conference call. Kristen Hawn, spokeswoman for...

U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) received two standing ovations Tuesday from the Laurel Rotary Club as he voiced criticism of President Obama’s drive to reform health care. “The Blue Dogs (Democrats who often vote Republican) have done America a great favor by delaying the vote,” said Taylor, a member of the group, who noted he is voting against the bill. “I don’t think we have the money for that. I’ve always thought something worth doing is worth paying for.” Taylor said the health care debate is a timely issue, adding that Americans must realize there is cost involved. “We all...

In a statement likely to intensify the GOP assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reign, a first-term Democratic "blue dog" congressman said that he would not vote to make her the top House Democrat again. Rep. Parker Griffith, a former oncologist from Alabama, told a town hall meeting this week that Pelosi is too divisive to be speaker. "I would not vote for her [again]," he added. "Someone that divisive and that polarizing cannot bring us together." Griffith has been fairly independent this year, opposing the stimulus and the cap-and-trade carbon emissions plan, according to the Huntsville ( Ala. ) Times,...

House Dem won't vote for Pelosi as Speaker By Michael O'Brien Posted: 08/25/09 01:43 PM [ET] A freshman House Democrat from Alabama said Tuesday he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as Speaker again because of her “divisive and polarizing” image. “I would not vote for her,” Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) told a constituent at a town hall meeting when asked if he'd support Pelosi. “Someone that divisive and that polarizing cannot bring us together.” Griffith represents a conservative district in Alabama that had been long held by former Rep. Bud Cramer (D), who retired after nine terms. Griffith...

Just got a robocall from his office this evening (Aug 24)...... Altmire Invites Constituents to Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform on August 26 August 18, 2009(???) (PITTSBURGH, PA) -- Today, U.S. Congressman Jason Altmire (PA-04) announced that he will hold a town hall meeting on health care reform in Farrell on Wednesday, August 26 at 4:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the auditorium at Farrell Area High School, located at 1600 Roemer Boulevard in Farrell, PA. Doors will open at 4 pm. If anyone knows applicable town meeting sites could you please post this there. BTW,...

MARIANNA, Fla. — Rep Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) is a skilled politician who has pretty much seen it all — a Deep South Democrat who’s managed to dispatch all opponents in his conservative-leaning Panhandle district since winning election in 1996. But as he fended off gnats buzzing through the August humidity after a morning fending off angry constituents at a town hall meeting here, Boyd confided that the depth of the unease spurred by the health care debate had caught him by surprise. “People are scared,” Boyd said twice, trying to explain what would drive his constituents away from home and...

Time was, Baron Hill was best known for his jump shot and tenacious defense when he was starting at guard in the heartland of basketball mania, the Hoosier state. He was successful in parlaying that notoriety, a good persona and “Blue Dog” political philosophy into a multi-term stint in the Congress, representing his home district, the 9th.... Hill lost his seat 5 years ago to a conservative patriot named Mike Sodrel, a truck driver-turned transportation magnate, but got his seat back the next election (2006). And something happened in the interim. Gone were the old Midwestern values and all that...

public (or "government-run") option in the healthcare bill before Congress is unlikely to survive conference between the House and Senate, a leader of the centrist Blue Dog coalition said this weekend.

Rep Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) is a skilled politician who has pretty much seen it all — a Deep South Democrat who’s managed to dispatch all opponents in his conservative-leaning Panhandle district since winning election in 1996.

From last night's Fox News All-Stars.On Obama blaming Republicans for obstructing health-care reform: "This is typical Obama. He speaks for truth and justice, and anybody who opposes him is a rabid partisan who does it for personal partisan reasons. Look, this is disingenuous, and it's dishonest. He knows that the reason his proposals are in trouble is because of two things: Democrats in Congress, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. In Congress, he's got the Blue Dogs in the House and he's got the moderates in the Senate. And the reason that he's in trouble is because, for example, as...

As we all know by now, Arlen Specter (rino PA) jumped to his true home, the Democratic party this year. One supposes he did what he felt he needed to do to survive politically (doesn't look like his plan worked). My question to all of you is who are the Democrats most likely to jump the sinking 'rat ship to the GOP in the coming months as Cpt. Barack stirs the USS Obamatitanic into that huge iceberg called the 2010 election?

Obama's Big Bang could go bust By: Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei August 21, 2009 02:54 PM EST Barack Obama’s Big Bang is beginning to backfire, as his plans for rapid, once-in-a-generation overhauls of energy, financial regulation and health care are running into stiff resistance, both in Washington and around the country. The Obama theory was simple, though always freighted with risk: Use a season of economic anxiety to enact sweeping changes the public likely wouldn’t stomach in ordinary times. But the abrupt swing in the public’s mood, from optimism about Obama’s possibility to concern he may overreaching, has thrown...

Despite the fact that the President is alternating between blaming those evil republicans and the evil insurance companies, the real hold up of Obamacare is the Civil War being waged in the Democratic party between the blue-dogs and the ultra liberals. For example, yesterday the self-declared most powerful woman in the world, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, threw down the gauntlet:

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said on Wednesday that providing healthcare to uninsured Americans is "not what this healthcare reform debate is about."In making his comments, Ross, who is the centrist Blue Dogs' health reform point man, questioned one of the primary healthcare goals of the White House and Democratic leaders. "That is a side benefit to healthcare reform and an important one," Ross told the Arkansas Educational Television Network. Instead, the fifth-term congressman said the bill should focus on "cost containment."The Energy and Commerce Committee member reiterated that he wants to pass a health reform bill by the end of...

link only per FR posting rules. (Gannett newspaper)

A funny thing happened on the way home to Blue Dog Democrats. Many of them had voiced enthusiasm for overhauling the American health-care system while on Capitol Hill. After getting a blast of constituent anger at yet another big-government, big-spending program, though, ABC’s Jake Tapper reports that their enthusiasm has diminished considerably: