{"id":6160,"date":"2011-10-21T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T07:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/are-blue-dogs-going-extinct\/"},"modified":"2011-10-21T00:01:45","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T07:01:45","slug":"are-blue-dogs-going-extinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/21\/are-blue-dogs-going-extinct\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Blue Dogs Going Extinct?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2008, the Blue Dogs\u2019 kennel was overflowing.  Three years later, their number is less than half what it was then.  They came to power as part of Howard Dean\u2019s 50 state strategy, and although, I support a 50 state strategy, I think we need to rethink the manner in which we implement that strategy.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"BlueDog\"News that Rep. Jim Costa<\/strike><\/span> Dennis Cardoza<\/strong><\/span> is retiring<\/a><\/font> is particularly good news for those of us who want to see the end of the pernicious influence of the biggest band of self-defeating Democrats in Congress\u2014the Blue Dogs. <\/font><\/p>\n

In 2008, they numbered 54 members, and bragged that they were turning away Democrats clammoring to join their caucus. After 2010, they were 25<\/a><\/font>\u2014a silver lining to an otherwise bleak year. It turned out that pretending to be Republicans and undermining their party was not<\/em><\/span> a path to self-preservation. Indeed, the Blue Dogs accounted for half of the party’s House losses that year. Yet they didn’t<\/a><\/font> really learn their lesson, and have continued to undermine President Barack Obama and the Democrats.<\/font><\/p>\n

But their caucus continues to be decimated\u2014this time by retirements. Already, Reps. Dan Boren<\/strong><\/span> and Mike Ross<\/strong><\/span>, both in the Blue Dog leadership, have announced their retirements from Congress. Good riddance. With Costa’s announcement, that brings them down to 22.<\/font><\/p>\n

Rep. Joe Donnelly<\/strong><\/span> will be running for Senate in Indiana, so that’s 21. Georgia’s John Barrow<\/strong><\/span> is being targeted by Republicans drawing up new congressional districts, and likely faces a tough slog back to the House. Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire<\/strong><\/span> will be forced by Republican map drawers into the same district as either Dem Rep. Mark Critz<\/strong><\/span> or Mark Doyle<\/strong><\/span>, giving us a chance to get rid of yet another Blue Dog.<\/font><\/p>\n

In Utah, map drawers targeted Rep. Jim Matheson<\/strong><\/span>, slicing his current district into parts of three new ones and making them all more Republican (from 59 percent GOP to 65 percent). He is deciding whether to run in one of those three districts, or to run for Senate or governor. North Carolina’s two Blue Dogs\u2014Heath Shuler<\/strong><\/span> and and Mike McIntyre<\/strong><\/span>\u2014have been drawn into brutal districts.<\/font><\/p>\n

It doesn’t take much effort to see a Blue Dog caucus well under 20 members, and that’s including half-assed Blue-Dog-In-Name-Only members like Reps. Loretta Sanchez<\/strong><\/span>, Adam Schiff<\/strong><\/span>, David Scott<\/strong><\/span>, and Gabby Giffords<\/strong><\/span> who generally vote the right way, without the theatrics and rhetoric that undermine the party\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em><\/span>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Daily Kos<\/a>><\/p>\n

The theory behind the 50 state strategy was to challenge Republicans everywhere, not just in districts where Democrats have an even chance or better.  I agree with that.  The Democrats became the \u201cbig tent\u201d party that would welcome moderate candidates in more conservative areas.  In practice, however, most of the so-called moderates turned out to be hard-core conservatives, with no party loyalty, that goose-step with the Republicans on virtually every vote.<\/font><\/p>\n

We should keep the 50 state strategy, but instead of supporting Blue Dogs with GOP fleas, we should support real Democrats.  If Blue Dogs refuse to vote with the party on key issues, they should face primary challenges and receive no support from the party.  Give voters in all 50 states the opportunity to choose a real Democrat.  If they then elect a Republican, that will be their punishment, and at least we won\u2019t have a representative that gives the party a bad name.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2008, the Blue Dogs\u2019 kennel was overflowing.  Three years later, their number is less than half what it was then.  They came to power as part of Howard Dean\u2019s 50 state strategy, and although, I support a 50 state strategy, I think we need to rethink the manner in which we implement that strategy. […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}