House Democrats Could Lose 28 Members And Be A FAR Stronger, More Effective Force In 2011

In fact, yesterday they did. When H.R. 3288, an appropriations bill with employment stimulus in mind, came up for a vote, every single Republican-- as expected-- voted against it. But so did 28 Democrats, including many of the ones most likely-- and most deserving-- to lose their re-election bids next year. The aisle-crossing "No" votes:

John Adler (NJ)
Brian Baird (WA)
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)
Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA)
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)
Jerry Costello (IL)
Kathy Dahlkemper (Blue Dog-PA)
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
Steve Driehaus (Anti-choice-OH)
Brad Ellsworth (Blue Dog-IN)
Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN)
Ron Kind (WI)
Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)
Dennis Kucinich (OH)
Dan Lipinski (Anti-choice-TN/IL)
Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)
Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)
Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)
Bill Owens (NY)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Ike Skelton (MO)
Bart Stupak (Anti-choice-MI)
John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)

A more progressive freshman-- and one, unlike these mangy corporate owned Blue Dogs, with impeccable ethics-- is Eric Massa (D-NY) who explained to his constituents why he voted for the bill. "Creating jobs is my highest priority which is why I'm proud to have voted for this fiscally responsible bill designed to help get struggling Americans back to work. By making meaningful investments in our infrastructure, job training and small business programs, we are working to improve our economy... Omnibus bills like this are always difficult to vote on because you can't vote no on the specific programs you don't like and yes on the ones you do-- you just get to vote yes or no. Overall however, this bill makes important investments in our economy and earned my vote." He went on to point out that there were three ways it was specifically targeting increased employment opportunities:

·    providing nearly $42 billion to improve our nation's aging highway system which means construction jobs;

·    making a $1.4 billion investment in training and support services for workers that have faced mass layoffs during the recession;

·    providing increased funding for several small business programs so they can help lead us out of this recession

Nothing Republicans or obsessed, corrupt Blue Dogs like Bobby Bright, Travis Childers and Walt Minnick care a whit about. Losing them on this vote didn't prevent the bill from sailing through yesterday. Having them inside the Democratic caucus is actually very destructuve since they are forever doing the work of the reactionaries and the special interests from within, moving the caucus and the caucus' legislative initiatives further and further away from helping ordinary working families achive their aspirations. A Congress without men like Bobby Bright, Travis Childers and Walt Minnick will be a far more progressive Congress even if they're replaced by Republicans who are tangentially worse than they are. In the current congressional year, these 3 Blue Dogs have ProgressivePunch scores (on substantive votes) of, respectively, 22.64, 16.98 and 26.42. Parker Griffith and Gene Taylor actually have even worse scores and some of them score worse than a handful of Republicans! But let's put it like this, these Blue Dogs are three or four times more likely to vote with Joe Wilson, Mike Pence, Michele Bachmann and Virginia Foxx than with Nancy Pelosi, Raul Grijalva, Henry Waxman or even a moderate like Bruce Braley or Loretta Sanchez (also a Blue Dog).