Who's Driving Freshmen To Vote Against The Democratic Agenda And Into The Blue Dog Caucus?

She hated doing that & was on the verge of tears

Blue Dogs-- most of whom have voted more frequently with the GOP than with the Democrats this past year (at least on substantive issues) are heading for the hills. One of the worst, Alabama multimillionaire and reactionary, Parker Griffith, first voted with the GOP approximately 85% of the time, then announced he would vote against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker next year and finally made the jump into the Republican cesspool. Other are just retiring, Arkansas' Marion Berry being the latest. When you hear talk about Democrats losing seats in November, the most likely losers are actually not real Democrats at all; they're Blue Dogs who vote with the GOP. But conventional wisdom is so skewered rightward Inside the Beltway that contrary to all good sense, the Blue Dogs have actually picked up four recent converts: Betsy Markey (CO), Mike Arcuri (NY), Scott Murphy (NY) and Kurt Schrader (OR).

Unlike her batshitcrazy predecessor, the universally loathed Marilyn Musgrave, everybody likes freshman Democrat Betsy Markey of Fort Collins. Just the other day one of her admiring colleagues described her to me as having been "on the verge of tears" when Hoyer and Van Hollen told her they had the votes they need to pass healthcare reform and that she should vote against it. And she did, poor thing. Since getting into Congress one year ago, Markey has voted-- on substantive matters (so not on naming post offices or voting to honor girl scout cookies)-- about 41% with the Democrats and 59% with the Republicans. This is how Hoyer and Van Hollen think a Representative from a Republican-leaning district (PVI is R+9) should vote. She beat Musgrove 187,347 (56%) to 146,028 (44%) but Insiders don't seem think that means voters in CO-04 were looking for change so they have positioned Markey as a Republican-lite agent of non-change. And it isn't working.

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, a Democrat from Fort Collins, was one of 39 Democrats who voted against the House health reform bill. She has also positioned herself as a conservative Democrat by joining the Blue Dog coalition.

But the freshman lawmaker, who won a traditionally Republican seat from Marilyn Musgrave in 2008, is vulnerable, independent pollster Floyd Ciruli said.

"Betsy is obviously in trouble," Ciruli said. "Just on the ground there is a Republican majority; now you add to it that there are independents going against incumbent Democrats, and Republicans are extremely invigorated."

Markey has earned a reputation for voting against her party when she feels it is the right thing to do, said her campaign spokesman, Ben Marter. "She is going to continue to represent her district, not rethink the entire campaign because of what people in Massachusetts said yesterday."

I called Marter this morning to ask him what made his boss decide to join the Blue Dog caucus and in the hopes that he could explain to me how it is she felt voting against healthcare-- regardless of the verge of tears stuff-- was "the right thing to do." He didn't call back. Progressives always call back. Republicans never call back. Blue Dogs... sometimes.

I also called Josh Schwerin, the communications director for freshman Scott Murphy, another newly minted Blue Dog. I noticed that he googled my name, checked out DWT and then did call back. Murphy won the special election for the 20th congressional district-- the one Gillibrand represented-- that went for Obama and that is safer for Democrats than Markey's. Yet only half a dozen Democrats voted more frequently with the GOP on substantive issues than Murphy-- characters like Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA). Murphy couldn't join the Old Confederacy so instead he joined the Blue Dogs. He's voted with Boehner more than 75% of the time-- although he does vote with the Democrats on naming post offices. He has the worst voting record in the House for any Democrat not in a "Strong" or "Leaning" Republican district. (Oh, and I don't want to get Josh in any trouble for calling me back; no need to worry: he didn't answer any questions.)

Neither Mike Arcuri's comm director nor and Kurt Schrader's bothered calling back. I guess Arcuri feels that the help he got from Blue America when he first ran has been amply paid back through the constant barrage of automated, canned, saccharine e-mails soliciting donations. Schrader's office, apparently is just too busy fighting off the GOP charges that he's "changed" and become too much of a Democrat. On substantive issues, Schrader has voted with his own party 53% of the time, 47% with the obstructionist Republicans but two the two crazy wingnuts running against him, that's just short of communism.

“I read the interview and what I see in my friend Kurt Schrader is a desperate attempt at self-rationalization,” said Rep. Scott Bruun, who has served in the Oregon House of Representatives since 2004. “Kurt is a good man, I admired him when he was in the Oregon Legislature. I would still call him a friend, although I’m not sure he would think the same of me.
The Kurt I knew in the Oregon Legislature was independent and since he has gone to Washington has been in lock step with Nancy Pelosi and the DNC.”

Bruun announced in October he will be running for Schrader’s seat, that is if he can make it past the May Republican primary, where he faces Fred Thompson of Salem.

Thompson agreed with Bruun’s characterization of Schrader.

“Kurt Schrader has voted more than 98-percent of the time with Nancy Pelosi,” Thompson said. “That’s wrong, because she is not right 98 percent of the time. We don’t need San Francisco politics here in Oregon. This is Oregon.

It's also untrue. Where does Thompson come up with the 98% figure? Did he just pull it out of his ass? Well, possibly, but more likely he got it from the NRCC, which is telling all their candidates to say that about their opponents. So 53% of substantive matters becomes 98%-- even though if you count everthing Schrader voted on since he was elected, post office naming, girl scout cookies and all, he voted with the Democrats 91% of the time. But now that he's joined the Blue Dogs, we can probably expect his scores to veer drastically right anyway. I doubt he has the capacity to effectively defend himself in the reralm of ideas from this Republican calumny. Oh, and the deadline for filing for the Oregon primary is March 9. If you follow Blue America, you probably know that we've already found some solid progressives who we're trying to help in races against Blue Dogs and other reactionaries.