Did Throwing Pelosi Under The Bus Save Any Filthy Blue Dogs From Oblivion?

Conservative Democrats-- primarily Blue Dogs-- have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the first female Speaker of the House, the leader of their own caucus, Nancy Pelosi and from the Democratic agenda. Some have publicly vowed to oppose her reelection as Speaker. What kind of a message do you think this sends people about Democrats and the Democratic brand? And it isn't just the Bobby Bright and Jim Marshall TV ads we looked at in the last couple of weeks. The Hill counted 5 incumbents and 8 challengers who told voters they would not vote for Pelosi:

•    Ala. Rep. Bobby Bright: “I am not going to vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House. Neither the leader of the minority party, John Boehner, nor the present speaker, will get my vote. I will vote for someone, a centrist, who is much more like me.” [$1,411,243.95]

•    Ga. Rep. Jim Marshall: “My candidate’s going to be somebody who’s a centrist, preferably somebody who’s going to be speaker of the entire House” [$42,321.21]

•    Miss. Rep. Gene Taylor: “I will not be voting for her again.” [$156,326.93]

•    N.C. Rep. Mike McIntyre: “From what we're hearing, she's probably not going to run for speaker again. And if she does, I'm confident she's going to have opposition, and I look forward to supporting that opposition.” [$270,224.62]

•    Pa. Rep. Jason Altmire: Next Congress would “certainly necessitate new leadership in the Speaker’s position.”

Candidates:

•    (Ala.-05) Steve Raby supports Rep. Allen Boyd for House Speaker.

•    (La-03) Ravi Sangisetty: "I believe Washington is broken, and it's time for new blood.”

•    (Mich.-03) Patrick Miles: “It’s time to have a leader of the House of Representatives who can heal the partisan divide… Nancy Pelosi is not the person to do that.”

•     (Mo.-07) Scott Eckersley will not support Pelosi or Boehner. “Frankly anyone who wants to raise the age on Social Security I'm not in favor of.”

•    (S.C.-02) Rob Miller: “We all know Washington is broken, and I hold Nancy Pelosi accountable for that” [$6,440.22]

•    (Tenn.-06) Brett Carter: “Voters in my district believe that you [Pelosi] do not represent their values”

•    (Tenn.-08) Roy Herron: “Roy would not be supporting either Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner for Speaker of the House. Neither of them are in the common sense center.”

•    (Utah-03) Karen Hyer: “I think it's time for new leadership in Washington.”

Democrats who say they MIGHT not back Pelosi:

•    Ark. Rep. Mike Ross: “No candidates for leadership positions, including Speaker of the House, have announced for the 112th Session of Congress.”

•    Ga. Rep. John Barrow: “November is a long way off. Congressman Barrow doesn’t even know who’s running.”

•    Idaho Rep. Walt Minnick: "I'm going to have to see who's running."

•    Ill. Rep. Bill Foster [$1,303,014.50]

•    Ind. Rep. Baron Hill says he wants to wait to see who is running. [$1,376,746.34]

•    Ind. Rep. Joe Donnelly didn't want to make any "pre-judgments." [$770,760.74]

•    Md. Rep. Frank Kratovil: “I do think that leadership-wise the Democratic party would be better if in some of the leadership positions there were some more moderate people.” [$1,514,468.48]

•    Miss. Rep. Travis Childers: “I'd like to see somebody more moderate in that role. I'd like to see a Blue Dog, quite frankly, because I agree with them on most of the issues.” [$966,806.38]

•    Mo. Rep. Ike Skelton: Declined to say if he would support her. “I’m not associated with her. She’s the speaker, but I’m an independent voice.” [$1,247,955.66]

•    N.C. Rep. Heath Shuler: Told constituents perhaps jokingly he might consider running for speaker himself. [$231,112.63]

•    N.Y. Rep. Mike McMahon: “It's hard to answer a hypothetical question when you don't know who the candidates are, you don't know if she's running again.”

•    N.Y. Rep. Scott Murphy: "We'll see. We'll see what happens when the election's over and we'll look at the leadership.” [$686,418.54]

•    Ohio Rep. Zack Space: “It’s inappropriate to commit because we don’t know who’s going to be running, whether she’s going to be running, whether she’s going to have opposition.” [$1,512,696.39]

•    Ore. Rep. Peter DeFazio: “any time you suffer big losses in business or politics, you need to step back and ask if we need to make some changes.”

•    Pa. Rep. Mark Critz: “I’ve never voted for Nancy Pelosi before, but I’m concentrating on my race.” [$1,609,857.86]

•    S.D. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: "I don't know who will be running," she said. "I haven't made any commitments." [$402,595.77]

•    Texas Rep. Chet Edwards: "No commitments." [$627,002.38]

•    Utah Rep. Jim Matheson: “If someone challenges her within the caucus that is more moderate in their views, that is someone I would take a serious look at.”

The number in brackets I inserted is how much the DCCC has spent, just in Independent Expenditures, on trying to elect these worthless Benedict Arnolds this cycle. Keep in mind, because the DCCC decided to spend the bulk of it's $65.103,409.58 on this garbage, there was no money to spend on actual Democrats who stand up for working families, stalwarts like Alan Grayson, Carol Shea-Porter, and Mary Jo Kilroy.

Some say-- including poor Pelosi-- that this isn't a problem and that all the Democratic caucus wants is for these people to be reelected. And there lies the root of the problem. Why? Why re-elect Bobby Bright? He claims he voted with Boehner 80% of the time. That barely scratches the surface of his record. When it came to contentious, substantive issues where the House divided by party, Bright not only voted with the Republicans nearly every single time, he do so more frequently than conservative Republicans like Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Vern Ehlers (R-MI), and Tim Johnson (R-IL). It wasn't just on healthcare reform, women's Choice, gay equality, and Wall Street reform where Bright, and many of these other Blue Dogs crossed the aisle; Bright even voted against the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (SCHIP), which was aimed to help better the lives of the very constituents who helped him eke out a narrow win in 2008. Interestingly 40 Republicans voted for it while it was only Bright and-- guess who-- Jim Marshall who stood by Boehner and Cantor when they tried to torpedo it. And yet, the DCCC will have spent nearly $4,000,000 on trying to get and keep this creep in Congress since 2008. That $4,000,000 could have been much better used. Bright, however, knew exactly which consultants tied to the decision makers to use. We'll get into that more fully when the dust has settled a bit.

Later today. I'll come back to this page and post the final votes for the Democrats who tried to throw Nancy and the Democratic brand under the bus. Do you think it saved their worthless hides? By the way, this is the ad Blue America ran in the counties in Bright's district that were most supportive of President Obama in 2008: