Blue Dog Paw Prints All Over Attempt To Create Village Conventional Wisdom Favorable To Conservative Takeover

It is widely thought that the biggest losers in the Midterm elections will be Blue Dogs and other reactionary Democrats who have consistently voted with Republicans on key issues. Many of these Democrats, who toe a pro-Big Business/anti-family line as tightly as the Republicans who take the same bribes as they do from the same corporate special interests, are expected to be defeated in November. Many progressives are quietly looking forward to the end of the political careers of as many as two dozen slimy conservative Democrats, many, though by no means all, from the Deep South. So leave it to the Village Conventional Wisdom Machine to spew this Blue Dog-penned headline: Centrist Democrats May Reign In House.

In that scenario, the finicky Blue Dog Coalition would be thinned but not erased, leaving a smaller but more powerful group of dissident Democrats... “We would then be in a position where they would have to listen to us,” said one of those Democrats expected to remain, Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.).

In interviews, Democratic strategists and nonpartisan political analysts pointed to several conservative Democrats who would be most likely to become the Nelsons or Liebermans of the House. Combining political independence with electoral strength, they broke ranks with Pelosi as much or more than any other member of the Democratic Caucus and yet are considered likely to survive all but the largest GOP tidal wave in November.

These members would also be the top candidates for a party switch if the House is up for grabs, and they could determine if Pelosi returns as Speaker at all-- a few have said they would prefer someone other than her next year.

The Hill then lists the "safest, most conservative Democrats:"
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog/crook-AR)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog- UT)
Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)
Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), whose latest ad is worth watching if you haven't seen it:



Most DCCC money is being spent to help Blue Dogs retain their seats. If there's any correlation between voting for the Democratic House agenda and the amount the DCCC spends on Independent Expenditures, it's a negative correlation. In other words, the crooks-- more on that after the election-- who are determining which campaigns are funded and which aren't, are steering the vast majority of expenditures towards the Members who have most consistently crossed the aisle to vote with Boehner and the House Republican thugs. Grassroots Democrats must work to defund the DCCC. Political contributions should be made directly to progressive incumbents like Alan Grayson and Raúl Grijalva and to progressive challengers like Justin Coussoule (D-OH), Bill Hedrick (D-CA), Beth Krom (D-CA), Ed Potosnak (D-NJ), and Billy Kennedy (D-NC), all of whom are being aggressively ignored by the DCCC.