Posted by
Steve Maloney on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 8:47:02 PM
Recently, I had a column that appeared to raise the interesting question whether Rep. Jason Altmire (PA 4th CD) was a "blue dog" or a "lap dog." As you'll recall, I came down on the latter -- the lap side. Technically, Jason Altmire is not a member of the Democrats' "Blue Dog Coalition," although he has many characteristics of the breed. If you want to determine the difference between three Democratic groups in the House -- (1) members of the Blue Dog Coalition: (2) members of the Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC), or (3) members of the plain old "liberal" category, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_CoalitionThe following is a list of members of the Blue Dog Coalition -- people who would probably be Republicans if it wasn't in their electoral interest to be Democrats. As you'll notice, there are only two members from Pennsylvania, Patrick Murphy from surburban Philadelphia and Tim Holden from the Harrisburg-Hershey area. Keep such people in mind. The Crusade for Pennsylvania (TCFP) is targeting them for defeat. Most of these individuals are people Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha can count on in a pinch, even though they claim to be moderate or even conservative. They're the ones who voted unanimously to elect "Nancy-with-the-headscarf" Speaker of the House.
It's nice that we have 44 Blue Dog Democrats. It's not nice that we end up getting the same old leftist Democrats -- Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, John Murtha, and the like -- heading up the important committees and subcommittees. Gee, how does that happen? It's also not nice that we get favorable votes on a timetable in the Iraq funding bill and federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Gee, does it sound as if the Democrats are playing a trick on you? Find out who the tricksters are in your own state by memorizing the following list of people my mother would have called "not nice."