Why are Blue Dog Democrats so Fuckin' spineless ??

[Hutzpa]

How long can the party continue to condone these cry babies within the party(?)

Harry Reid is not a leader, he does not have what it takes to be one.

A spineless SOB.....




:grr: :grr:

[Taverner]

1. Oh they have spines all right - fused right into the corporations they work for

[valerief]

2. Spineless? They get paid very well from their bribers. nt

[Lerkfish]

3. the answer is contained in the question, grasshopper.

by definition, they are spineless.

[Wapsie B]

4. But even hamstrung by the Blue Dogs it shouldn't hinder Democratic progress.

The gop is in a clear minority in government now and that never stopped them. Albeit the wrong point of view they stand up and fight to get what they want done. Majority or minority makes no difference to the repugs.

[randr]

5. They know there constituents are conservative and

therefore can be lied to.

[GoCubsGo]

23. Exactly!!!

A great example: The Congressman for one of my neighboring districts is John Barrow,
Blue Dog Democrat. My district is represented by Gresham Barrett, right-wing nut-job. Another district next to both is represented by uber-nutjob, Paul "Obama is a Nazi" Broun. The district to the south of Barrow's district is represented by fellow kook, Jack "A five day work week is tooooo loooonggg!" Kingston. That these clowns hold elected office give one a good idea of makes up the constituencies around here. These districts are full of unreformed Johnny Rebs and religious nuts. Barrow's district includes Augusta, "birthplace of the Southern Baptist Convention", which broke off from the mainline Baptist church over the latter's opposition to slavery.

The only reason Barrow was elected is that his district is roughly 45% black (Broun's district is 87% white, Kingston's is >70% white). He was re-elected this time around was because they came out in droves to vote for Barack Obama. He probably won't be so lucky next year. Meanwhile, his white constituents eat up the shit sandwiches fed to them by the Augusta Abominable and other local fish wraps, talk radio, and Pox News, which is on the TVs in every restaurant, bar and waiting room that has them, along with those in the Augusta airport. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them are being fed the same BS in their Sunday sermons.

I don't like that Barrow is a Blue-dog, but sadly, that's the best we can hope for in these parts. He has his work cut out for him just staying in office, considering how brain-washed his constituency is. I expect that is the case for most, if not all of the others. Not making excuses for them. Just saying...

On edit: Barrow's district was supposedly legislated to be a Democratic stronghold, yet he lost to wingnut Max Burns in 2002. He got the seat back in 2004, but almost lost it to Burns again in 2006. He won by less than a thousand votes. That pretty much explains Barrow's voting record, IMO.

[Kingofalldems]

6. In DU land I have noticed incredible sneakiness

from the so-called blue dog faction.

[damntexdem]

7. They're not spineless -- they're fearlessly prostituting themselves.

Why are other Dems too spineless to call them on it?

[invictus]

22. +1

[Aramchek]

8. Harry is worried about reelection.

I would give up a seat in the Senate to be rid of him and his 'seniority'.
We need somebody who can act like a real Democrat without fear of getting voted out as our Senate Leader.

[lurky]

9. I call it Ineffectiveness As A Strategy

Perfected by Tom Daschle. This allows the politician to appear to support a popular proposal like health-care reform, while actually sabotaging it for their corporate masters. You've all heard it: "Gosh, we really want this, but the Republicans keep outmaneuvering us!" "We may have a 60% majority, but we still don't have the votes and the Republicans manage to block us every time!" These guys are like the Washington Generals against the Harlem Globetrotters.

Just look at all the money and bling Daschle got from the health care industry after he left office. Do you think they just gave it to him because he was a nice guy?

[Hutzpa]

10. Silly question

but, could Tom Daschle orchestrating this movement from the outside
since he is a corporate handy man(?) :shrug:

[lurky]

12. I dunno...

:shrug:
It wouldn't surprise me if he was involved, since he is a big-time health industry lobbyist now. But really, a lobbyist is just a hand puppet for the corporations.

[TheKentuckian]

11. Spineless?!? They've got balls the size of churchbells.

They fear nothing but losing contributions.

[Hippo_Tron]

13. There is no spine in politics, only "what is good for me"

Blue dogs are, for the most part, people whose only ambition is to be in congress for as long as possible. Other politicians hope to be President some day. The ones who hope to be President put themselves in a position where they will be able to appeal to the party's liberal base in the primaries. Blue dogs see no need to do this since they are lazy and unambitious.

[Raineyb]

14. They're doing exactly what they've been told to do by their masters. n/t

[democracy1st]

15. they're not democrats they're repubs keeping the democratic party in check so to speak

[Pharlo]

16. Simple, they're not really 'blue dogs'

Dogs have spines.

Nope, what we have here is a right wing spin for 'Republican Red Pond Scum'. They sat down in one of their 'think tanks' and figured out 'Red Scum' wouldn't be as marketable as 'Blue Dogs', so they went with the second option. However, it is a scientific fact that Red Scum has no backbone, so don't waste your time looking.

[Meshuga]

17. They certainly don't have the hutzpah! :-) n/t

[burning rain]

18. There are a lot of Democrats -- not just Blue Dogs -- who are...

Democrats simply because of the Iraq War, Katrina, abortion, idiotic Schiavo antics, etc., and don't have any particular commitment to a liberal economic agenda.

[smoochpooch]

19. Because unlike the founders, they see "public service" as a career and not duty for the public good.

[cleveramerican]

20. Why can't Obama get their votes?

there is two sides to this dance.
its 1 in 5 members
its not just a few.

He has been totally unsuccessful selling this package to the nation.
Too vague, not clear enough about his vision for it.
its a tough break, but is not the blue dogs fault.

Fall back/re-group/pick it up again in September

[Ken Burch]

21. The rolls of thousand dollar bills act as substitute vertebra

n/t.

[niceypoo]

24. The blue dogs will refuse to vote to stop a filibuster

The nuclear option is needed

[ensho]

25. they have so much health insurance company money in their pockets they

can't stand up straight = curvature of the spine

[Honeycombe8]

26. They're not. They are the ones with the balls in the Dem. Party.

They are pursuing what their moderate constituents want them to, despite being harangued by the other Dems. But apparently they are sticking to their guns.

It is the OTHER Dems who are not doing such a good job at sticking to THEIR guns.

[Ken Burch]

30. No Dem Congresscritters' constituents want healthcare reform watered down to nothing

n/t.

[Warren Stupidity]

33. bullshit

[Leo The Cleo]

27. Avoid Primaries . . . DUH!

They don't want social change. They simply want to avoid primaries in republican regions.

[leftofthedial]

28. they aren't spineless.

they are repukes.

[backscatter712]

29. Legalized bribery. n/t

[budkin]

31. $$$$$$$$$

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

32. They got spines all right - the problem with the Blue Dogs is they've been neutered.