I get a lot of retweet and replies from people defending Blue Dogs. I get the feeling that most of the perps are actually conservatives, just morons who don't understand what Blue Dogs are and what kind of damage they cause the Democratic brand and the whole country. I'll explain that in a moment but first let me list the current Blue Dogs and which candidates are running under the Blue Dog banner. First the incumbents:
• Sanford Bishop (GA)• Jim Cooper (TN)• Lou Correa (CA)• Jim Costa (CA)• Charlie Crist (FL)• Henry Cuellar (TX)• Vicente Gonzalez (TX)• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)• Dan Lipinski (IL)• Stephanie Murphy (FL)• Tom O'Halleran (AZ)• Collin Peterson (MN)• Brad Schneider (IL)• Kurt Schrader (OR)• David Scott (GA)• Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)• Mike Thompson (CA)• Filemon Vela (TX)
It's important to remember that the phrase "Blue Dogs" is not an adjective to describe conservative Democrats, though it could be. The "Blue Dogs" is a formal organization. You pay dues, elect officers, go to meetings, split up bribes from Big Business interests eager to purchase influence inside the Democratic caucus, etc. In order to be endorsed by the Blue Dogs, you have to apply and pass a written test proving you are a corrupt conservative. Many of their worst candidates-- like Jay Hulings (TX), Brad Ashford (NE), JD Huffstetler (VA) and Jim Grey (KY)-- have already been defeated by more progressive candidates in primaries this year. This is the garbage that's left:
• Anthony Brindisi (NY)• Paul Davis (KS)• Gretchen Driskell (MI)• Mel Hall (IN)• Chris Hunter (FL)• Brendan Kelly (IL)• Kathy Manning (NC)• Ben McAdams (UT)• Matt Reel (TN)• Max Rose (NY)• Clarke Tucker (AR)• Denny Wolff (PA)• Jeff Van Drew (NRA-NJ)
For the fun of it, I bolded every Blue Dog candidate who is in a district that was won by Bernie in the 2016 primary. So what's so bad about the Blue Dogs that I would urge readers to not vote for them in primaries and consider carefully if you want to vote for a lesser-of-two-evils candidate in the general? Let's go back a few years when the Blue Dogs were bragging about how they were powerful enough to have scuttled the public option. Not a single House Republican voted for the Affordable Care Act-- and all the negotiating was internal, between Democrats. The Blue Dogs held the bill hostage, threatening to vote with the Republicans to kill it. Mike Ross, then head of the Blue Dogs:
"We insured that if there is a government option, it will be just that-- an option-- and it won’t be mandated on anybody. If it had been based on Medicare rates, I can assure you that it would have eventually ended up resulting in a single payer-type system, because Medicare has really good rates, because they’re negotiating for every senior in America. Private insurance companies could not have competed with that. And so we would have at the end of the day ended up with single payer. Now we’ve leveled the playing field, if there is a government option they’ll have to go out again and negotiate with providers just like private insurance companies do. That was important to me to insure that we don’t end up with some type of single payer system."
Imagine if Pelosi didn't give in to them and passed it. But she did-- she had no choice. Several Blue Dogs just did the same thing with DACA a couple of weeks ago. That's what they do. They call themselves "moderates" and "centrists" but within the Democratic Party they are conservatives who drag the party consistently to the right by threatening to vote with the Republicans, when they do all the time.ProgressivePunch has graded every Blue Dog's record "F." These are the 7 worst Democrats in Congress based on this cycle's votes. All of them have voted more frequently with the Republicans on crucial roll calls than with the Democrats. Walter Jones (R-NC) votes with the Democrats more than they do. And Justin Amash votes against the GOP than all but one of the stinkin Blue Dogs. This year, worst of all has been Collin Peterson, who has voted with the Democrats 28% of the time. Kyrsten Sinema-- Blue Dog chairwoman who Schumer has chosen to run for the Senate-- has voted with the Democrats (from a safe blue seat) 32% of the time. Jim Costa, also in a safe blue district, voted with the Dems 32%, as have 2 more from safe blue seats, Jim Costa (CA) and Henry Cuellar (TX). Josh Gottheimer- 39%, Tom O'Halleran- 40%, Stephanie Murphy- 42%. Horrible. And if you say, we need them to win, you are absolutely wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. History proves that most of them will likely lose their seats in the 2022 midterms when Democratic core voters realize what they are and stay away from the polls.
