In 2006, the Republicans greeted the midterms as a spent force. George W. Bush was historically unpopular-- bogged down in an unpopular war and-- along with congressional Republicans-- an unending parade of scandals. Democrats defeated 22 GOP incumbents and won 8 open seats that had been held by Republicans who retired. And, for the first time since the GOP was founded, Republicans didn't beat a single Democrat or win a single open Democratic seat. The Democrats' popular vote was 42,338,795 (52.3%) to the GOP's 35,857,334 (44.3%). These were the Democrats first elected that year:
• Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)• Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ)• Jerry McNerney (D-CA)• Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)• Joe Courtney (New Dem-CT)• Chris Murphy (New Dem-CT)• Kathy Castor (D-FL)• Tim Mahoney (Blue Dog-FL)- lost 2008• Ron Klein (New Dem-FL)• Hank Johnson (D-GA)• Mazie Hirono (D-HI)• Phil Hare (D-IL)• Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)• Brad Ellsworth (Blue Dog-IN)• Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN)• Bruce Braley (D-IA)• Dave Loebsack (D-IA)• Nancy Boyda (rejected Blue Dog-KS)- lost 2008• John Yarmuth (D-KY)• John Sarbanes (D-MD)• Tim Walz (D-MN)• Keith Ellison (D-MN)• Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)• Paul Hodes (D-NH)• Albio Sires (D-NJ)• Yvette Clarke (D-NY)• John Hall (D-NY)• Kirsten Gillibrand (Blue Dog-NY)• Mike Arcuri (Blue Dog-NY)• Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)• Charlie Wilson (Blue Dog-OH)• Betty Sutton (D-OH)• Zack Space (Blue Dog-OH)• Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)• Joe Sestak (D-PA)• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-PA)• Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA)• Steve Cohen (D-TN)• Nick Lampson (Blue Dog-TX)• Peter Welch (D-VT)• Steve Kagen (D-WI)
Of those 15 Blue Dogs, not one is still in the House. But I'll get into that in a moment. First let's fast forward two years to the 2008 election, with Obama at the top of the ticket for the first time. The Republicans lost 26 seats-- although they did beat 5 Democratic incumbents. The Democrats won a higher percentage of votes in 2008 than they had 2 years earlier-- 65,237,840 (53.2%) to 52,249,491 (42.6%) for the GOP. These were the newly elected Democrats:
• Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)• Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-- who turned Republican-AL)• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)• Betsy Markey (Blue Dog-CO)• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)• Alan Grayson (D-FL)• Suzanne Kosmas (Blue Dog-FL)• Walt Winnick (Blue Dog-ID)• Debbie Halvorson (New Dem-IL)• Chellie Pingree (D-ME)• Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)• Mark Schauer (D-MI)• Gary Peters (D-MI)• Dina Titus (D-NV)• John Adler (Blue Dog-NJ)• Martin Heinrich (D-NM)• Harry Teague (Blue Dog-NM)• Mike McMahon (Blue Dog-NY)• Paul Tonko (D-NY)• Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY)• Eric Massa (D-NY)• Larry Kissell (Blue Dog-NC)• Steven Driehaus (New Dem-OH)• Marcia Fudge (D-OH)• Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH)• John Boccieri (Blue Dog-OH)• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)• Kathy Dahlkemper (Blue Dog-PA)• Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA)• Tom Perriello (D-VA)• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)
Of the 14 Blue Dogs elected that year, just one-- Schrader-- is still in Congress. The following year, 2010-- Democratic voters just stayed away from the polls in droves-- millions of them. All those crap Blue Dogs and most of the New Dems were defeated because Democratic voters realized they had been tricked by the DCCC and by their own leaders into backing Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Democrats lost 63 seats and virtually the whole Blue Dog caucus. The Democratic turnout went from 65,237,840 (53.2%) votes to 38,980,192 (44.9%) while the Republican vote dropped far less-- from 52,249,491 (42.6%) votes to 44,827,441 (51.7%).The Democrats, though, learned nothing at all. How do I know? I watch the DCCC carefully and see what kind of garbage they're recruiting to run again this year. Yesterday Arit John, reporting for Bloomberg, wrote that Democrats See Conservative Blue Dogs as Key to Winning House. Yep... they're doing it again. The DCCC, he reported "is now building close ties with the previously ignored Blue Dog Coalition-- which boasts that it’s not afraid to buck Democratic leadership-- to prepare for next year’s elections, when all 435 seats in the chamber are up for grabs... 'The DCCC has seen the light,' said Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon, a Blue Dog coalition member. Representative Ben Ray Lujan, a [conservative and an idiot] New Mexico Democrat and chairman of the Democrats’ campaign committee, said in a statement that the Blue Dogs have 'been incredible partners,' helping develop a list of 79 Republican-held seats to target in the 2018 election."
Some Democratic activists aren’t pleased the party is embracing the Blue Dogs. Liberals aren’t keen on promoting candidates who may oppose traditional Democratic views on abortion rights, gun control and many other policies, saying those candidates will lose to Republicans."The days of the Blue Dogs are over," said Adam Green, the co-chairman of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political action committee that works to elect liberal candidates. "The threat to progressives is a Democratic Party that rallies around people generally going in the right direction, but who think very small-bore and who are themselves milquetoast candidates who don’t inspire voters."...In the 2016 election, the Democrats picked up six House seats. Three of the incoming freshmen ran as Blue Dogs: Representatives Tom O’Halleran of Arizona, Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. The DCCC is working with the Blue Dogs to replicate that success on a wider scale next year, said DCCC spokesman Tyler Law.The DCCC has made a "robust and concerted" effort to include the Blue Dogs in recruiting candidates and let them take the lead in assisting potential candidates with messaging and finding consultants, said Representative Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the chairwoman of the Blue Dog PAC.“In the past it would be DCCC staff who would kind of drive the process and what we’ve said is ‘Well, we think we’re better at this than you guys,’” she said.In previous election cycles, there has been little to no coordination between the Blue Dog caucus and the DCCC, but now there are weekly meetings between staffers to discuss recruitment, said Molly Allen, director of the Blue Dog PAC.She said they are playing a role in lining up candidates in 50 to 70 districts. The Blue Dogs are also working on pairing potential candidates with the pollsters, advertisers and consultants that its members have worked with for years.There’s enthusiasm among the tight-knit group of Blue Dogs and their staff about their influence within the party, she said. Allen pointed to a meeting early this year when the DCCC’s recruitment chairman, Representative Denny Heck of Washington, said the party won’t have a majority unless more Blue Dogs are elected.Some party leaders appear to agree. After Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said in April that support for abortion rights is "not negotiable," several Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, said there is room in the party for anti-abortion Democrats.“She understands that in order to get the majority you’ve got to work with other folks,” said Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, the Blue Dogs’ co-chairman for communications. Cuellar, who opposes abortion, said Pelosi’s office also reached out to him at the time.Despite DCCC support, Blue Dogs will have to face opposition from Democrats’ newly ignited activist wing, which has rejected the idea of running from the center. While the caucus has “nowhere to go in 2018 but up,” its members risk losing primaries to more liberal candidates, said David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report.Liberals say their key policy objectives, including a $15 an hour minimum wage and a single-payer health care system, poll well nationally. Conservative Democrats argue that progressives are trying to turn out Democratic voters who don’t exist instead of reflecting the priorities of the Republican-held districts they are trying to win."The Democrats have won every liberal seat in the country," Sinema said. "What the Democrats haven’t done is won all of the swing seats in the country."
The report mentions the 3 worst freshmen in Congress, Blue Dogs Tom O’Halleran (a "former" Republican), Stephanie Murphy and Josh Gottheimer. All three vote consistently against anything that smacks of progressive legislation. Each is rated "F" by ProgressivePunch. O'Halleran and Gottheimer are tied at 28.12 and Murphy is nearly as bad with a crucial vote score of 35.48. When Ryan and McCarthy boast that this hideous piece of legislation or that piece of destructive, toxic puke won with "bipartisan" support, they're talking about 7 very right-wing Blue Dogs: Stephanie Murphy, Dan Lipinski (IL), Josh Gottheimer, Tom O'Halleran, Collin Peterson (MN), Henry Cuellar (TX) and, worst of all, Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), who, for example sits on the House Financial Services Committee and votes with the Republicans to set Wall Street free to plunder Americans in return for taking $1,003,940 in bribes from the Finance Sector last year. When weak-minded scumbags like Lujan, who should have been kicked out of the DCCC after losing miserably instead of getting to be chairman again, talk about giving the Blue Dogs a role, they're not just talking about Republican-lite conservatives, they're talking about corrupt bribe takers. There are no Blue Dogs who don't take special interest payoffs for their votes-- none, not one, not ever.A problem for progressive voters is that few Democrats run as Blue Dogs. They mouth the words normal Democrats say and then when it's too late, when they're in office, they take off the masks and expose the ugly truth. Chances are good that if the DCCC is backing a candidate in a primary, they're backing either a Blue Dog or New Dem. Chances are going when someone claims to be a "centrist" (like Dave Min in Orange County or Andrew Janz in the Central Valley) we're talking about Blue Dogs or New Dems not Democrats. Be careful-- and everyone on this list you get to by hitting the Blue America thermometer on the right is a progressive and not a Blue Dog and not a New Dem. And one more thing to remember, if an anti-Trump tsunami elects a batch of slimy Blue Dogs in 2018, they'll all be defeated in 2022 when their constituents realize they got tricked by the DCCC again.
