Housebroken 'Blue Dogs'
Blake, Whitney
Housebroken ‘Blue Dogs’ Nancy Pelosi keeps them on a short leash. BY WHITNEY BLAKE When Democrats swept the 2006 midterm elections, several freshman House Democrats won on conservative...
...A fl oor vote would have forced Democrats to go on record, but a vote to prevent the vote is just as revealing...
...The letter outlined what should be included in the fi nal legislation, notably immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government after the September 11 attacks by providing surveillance information...
...The Blue Dogs “feel like they’re an important part” of the budget outcome, one Democratic staffer told me in mid-March...
...On free trade, the Blue Dogs went along with Pelosi’s desire to bury the Colombia trade pact—which had been negotiated with House Ways and Means chairman Charlie Rangel at the table—by eliminating the mandatory up-or-down vote under fast-track authority privileges...
...But in the end, they toed the party line...
...Carney and Shuler were the only two freshman Blue Dogs who stood by their convictions...
...But the House belongs to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, not to Bush, and the Blue Dogs have caught on quickly...
...and left immigration reform to languish indefi nitely...
...The one exception: Heath Shuler proposed a comprehensive plan to beef up border security with 8,000 new border agents and new technology, expand the E-Verify program to all employers to check employees’ legal status, and add more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and training...
...former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler, NC-11...
...Kirsten Gillibrand, NY-20...
...Note that a heavy contingent— 8 of the 13—represent key swing states: Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida...
...Even a Washington Post editorial took House Democrats to task: “Economically, it should be a no-brainer—especially at a time of rising U.S...
...Whitney Blake is a business reporter for the Washington Examiner...
...The Bush tax cuts, valued at about $683 billion, are not renewed under the plan, and a new $70 billion tax to pay for a patch to the alternative minimum tax is implemented, something Blue Dogs tout as an accomplishment...
...A number of these so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats hail from districts that President Bush carried at least once...
...Arcuri, Gillibrand, Hill, Murphy, and Space have cosponsored the bill but have yet to support the discharge petition...
...From the war on terror, to taxes and the budget, to immigration and free trade, the Blue Dogs may talk tough, but they’re more Yorkie than German Shepherd when confronted with Pelosi’s iron grip...
...On almost every issue, the freshman Blue Dogs have failed to advance their campaign agendas, which were carefully tailored to their moderate constituencies...
...Six are competing in districts Cook classifies as “likely Democratic” (Joe Donnelly, IN-2...
...Fourteen of the signers voted for it...
...But last year, Republicans managed to get an AMT patch passed without any offsets, at the time a $50 billion violation of pay-go, because of its popularity in the Senate, where it passed 88 to 5. Ultimately, 10 of the 13 freshman Blue Dogs voted for the patch without pay-go provisions...
...One would think the Blue Dog coalition, with its 48 members, would have more sway in a House in which Democrats have only a 36-seat edge over Republicans...
...To date, 186 of the required 218 representatives have signed the petition...
...When it comes to the war on terror, the Blue Dogs folded on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) after a half-hearted attempt to stand their ground...
...It’s the same budget from last year with more spending piled on,” absent reforms on earmarks and entitlements, said a Republican House aide...
...Baron Hill, IN-9...
...and Iraq war veteran Patrick Murphy, PA-8...
...Just last Thursday, the House and Senate budget chairs met with Blue Dogs to discuss alternatives in order to get fi nal budget passage...
...The House Democrats’ fi scal 2009 budget, which passed by a slim margin (212 to 207) on March 13, was $22.4 billion in excess of President Bush’s request...
...The fi nal House version of the bill, which did not include immunity for telecoms, passed on March 14, by a vote of 213 to 197...
...In just four short months, the Blue Dogs have helped kill a key national security program, as well as a free trade agreement that’s been in the works for over two years...
...welcomed the largest tax increase in history...
...BY WHITNEY BLAKE When Democrats swept the 2006 midterm elections, several freshman House Democrats won on conservative platforms...
...On January 28, 21 Blue Dogs sent a letter to Pelosi asking her to move on the Senate’s bill before some provisions expired...
...On April 10, the measure passed, 224 to 195...
...FISA has become a “point of contention,” said one Republican staffer, who predicts Republicans will have a “great amount of success” with the issue in moderate districts...
...joblessness...
...Either they look too weak to stand up to the leadership, or they are out of sync with their districts and really aren’t conservative, she added...
...Jim Matheson (UT-2), who signed the letter and then voted for Pelosi’s bill, as well as TV ads in other states home to some freshman Blue Dogs...
...Two are in the “toss up” category (Chris Carney, PA-10, and Nick Lampson, TX-22...
...Failure to pass such a measure, the letter concluded, “could place our national security at undue risk...
...Instead, after initial bursts of rhetoric contrary to Pelosi’s positions, most of them caved to the party leadership, even when that meant stepping out of alignment with their districts...
...House Republicans will still have an uphill election battle, but if the Blue Dogs keep up this pace, the hill won’t be as steep...
...Lampson, who didn’t sign the original letter, also voted against it...
...The only substantive Blue Dog agenda item adopted in the 2009 House budget was pay-as-you-go rules to offset spending...
...But the freshman Blue Dogs are not coming to the aid of one of their own...
...Cook deemed only one freshman Blue Dog safe (Charles Wilson, OH-6...
...The same thing may happen this year...
...Just three freshman Blue Dogs—Hill, Lampson, and Mahoney—bucked Pelosi’s action...
...Politically, too, the agreement is in the American interest, as a reward to a friendly, democratic government...
...Politically this could be very perilous for them,” said Antonia Ferrier, communications director for minority whip Roy Blunt...
...Only Carney, Donnelly, Ellsworth, and Lampson have added their names...
...But seven freshmen—Donnelly, Ellsworth, Giffords, Hill, Lampson, Murphy, and Shuler—thought twice about their constituents’ response and voted “no...
...Michael Arcuri, NY24...
...In fact, the Defense of Democracies Action Fund started running radio spots in early April against Rep...
...Pelosi will not put his bill on the agenda, so Republicans are trying to get a majority of representatives to sign a discharge petition, moving the bill directly to the floor...
...Twelve of the 13 are listed on the Cook Political Report’s most recent “competitive races” chart...
...and Gabrielle Giffords, AZ-8...
...Zack Space, OH-18...
...In addition, Arcuri, Carney, Gillibrand, Giffords, Hill, Lampson, Mahoney, and Murphy were named in a leaked memo of 24 districts targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee...
...Four are running in “lean Democratic” districts (Tim Mahoney, FL16...
...Brad Ellsworth, IN-8...
...Last, the Blue Dogs are not making progress on immigration reform, the sleeper issue of the 2006 elections...
...only Shuler, Hill, and Murphy held fi rm...
...The fate of these freshmen this November is yet to be determined, but they aren’t breathing easy...
Vol. 13 • May 2008 • No. 32
