What Does It Mean To Be A Blue Dog In America Today?

When John Barrow first ran for Congress in 2004, friends of mine in Athens persuaded me that he had been a liberal county commissioner and had a chance to replace freshman GOP extremist Max Burns in Congress. I wrote a maxed-out check. It didn't take long before I realized I'd made an error. Towards the end of the campaign Barrow revealed what a slimy worm he is. He called me to tell me that although he personally had nothing against gay people, he had to campaign as though he did. I didn't think to ask for my money back. I just told him not to call me again and hung up and got back to my gardening.

Barrow won and he's been in Congress for 10 years, one of the worst Members in that abysmal body. All of the more talented and senior Blue Dogs having been defeated or forced into retirement, Barrow is now chairman of that rump caucus. This year, he can boast that he has the least progressive voting record of any Democrat in the House-- a ProgressivePunch crucial vote score for 2013-14 of 23.81-- and that his voting record is further right that several conservative Republicans. There's not a single issue he's good on-- not one-- and he never misses an opportunity to cross the aisle and vote for the Republicans, something he does more than any other Democrat in Congress.

Barrow, still a sniveling, cowardly worm, is at the nexus of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. And he'd like to enlarge his shriveled and insignificant caucus. Last cycle they elected one new member, conservative shithead Pete Gallego, who is likely to lose his seat in November, and then saw 5 anti-family/pro-corporate conservatives join during the session:

• Ron Barber (AZ)
• Cheri Bustos (IL)
• Dan Lipinski (IL)
• Nick Rahall (WV)
• Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)

This cycle, the Blue Dogs have already endorsed 3 wretched conservative challengers: Jennifer Garrison (OH), Gwen Graham (FL) and James Lee Witt (AR). Graham has a small chance to win; they two others have no chance whatsoever, although Steve Israel, a vile Blue Dog himself, pushed all 3 into the DCCC's money-wasting Red-to-Blue program.

Last week, Israel announced that the DCCC had reserved $43.5 million in ads for November, almost all the money being allocated on behalf of conservatives who vote with the GOP on a regular basis-- and almost none of it going to progressives. In many cases, he has chosen to finance conservatives with absolutely no chance to win while leaving winnable seats on the table because the challenger is a progressive. Big money, for example-- millions of dollars-- will flow to treacherous Blue Dogs Barrow, Sinema, Rahall, Barber and Gallego, each of whom votes far more frequently with Boehner on crucial roll calls than with progressives.

In the first vote of the new session, 5 Blue Dogs-- Barrow, Jim Cooper, Jim Matheson, Dan Lipinski and Mike McIntyre-- refused to vote for Pelosi as Speaker. Several Blue Dogs used GOP talking points to attack her during their reelection campaigns. Over the years, more than a few Blue Dogs have outright quit the Democratic Party and joined the GOP, among them Ralph Hall (TX), Nathan Deal (GA), Billy Tauzin (LA), Jimmy Hayes (LA), Virgil Goode (VA), Parker Griffith (AL) and Rodney Alexander (LA).

Consumed with deranged hatred, the Blue Dogs lose another freak to the GOP

Friday I saw a report that Kansas state Rep. Janice Pauls, the last Democratic Representative in western Kansas, had quit the party and joined the GOP. First elected in 1992, Pauls is an anti-Choice fanatic, violently and aggressively anti-gay, an A+ shill for the NRA, and generally anti-environment. She's been a dependable vote for the right-wing Republican agenda. Democrats have been trying to defeat her for sometime and she nearly lost her 2012 primary. After her 8-vote primary victory, Kansas' Democratic Party spokesman Dakota Loomis told HuffPo that the party will support Pauls in November, even though she differs from the party's stance on social issues. He said this is part of the party's policy to support all Democratic nominees. He did note that the party would like Pauls to reconsider her beliefs, which he said are close to the lawmaker. "The party and Jan Pauls have differences on these issues. We would like it if Jan Pauls were to reconsider her positions on this."

Instead, she reconsidered her party affiliation. Good riddance! Like every Blue Dog turncoat before her, she babbled "That party has changed, I haven't changed… As the 2014 legislative session closes, I have made the relatively easy decision to go from Blue Dog Democrat to Blue Collar Republican." She is now an eager attack machine against Democrats and progressives.

Pauls pointed to a growing gap between her "long held values" and what she described as the recent shift to the far left on social issues by her then-fellow Democrats.

"My jump to the Republican Party should not be surprising to any of my fellow Democrats," said Pauls. "My twenty years of loyalty to the Democrat party was met last election with official support from the party headquarters for the LGBT caucus that was attacking and trying to unseat me, the senior member of the Democrat House caucus. That was a clear demonstration to me of a new Democrat party policy and priority."

The Democratic Party responded to Pauls' defection by stating they will continue trying to get candidates elected who will restore recent cuts in education.

"If Jan Pauls joined the Kansas GOP because of the Kansas Democratic Party's belief in equality and opportunity for every Kansan, then that's her choice," said the party's communications director Dakota Loomis.

Steve Israel will spend millions and millions of dollars electing and reelecting Blue Dogs who will then undermine the Democratic Party from within. What was Nancy Pelosi thinking?