No surprise here....here are the 11 right-wing Democrats who voted AGAINST the stimulus

[FLAprogressive]

an * means they also voted against fair pay for women

The traitors:

The only Dem to support Bush's "privatize social security" plan, Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL)*
Bobby not-so Bright (Reactionary-AL) *
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
Brad Ellsworth (Blue Dog-IN)
Parker Griffith (Reactionary-AL)*
Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
Frank Kratovil (Reactionary-MD)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Walt Minnick (Reactionary-ID)
Know Nothing ex-quarterback, Rahm Emanuel's Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Racist Dixiecrat Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)

[jpak]

1. One word

PRIMARY!!!11

[midnight]

2. Good word.

[MADem]

4. No. The Speaker and the Whips "vote count."

They let people vote the way their district EXPECTS them to vote, if it doesn't make any difference anyway.

If they play the "principled" game and don't do what Mister Hoyer tells them to do, then they get NO MONEY when it comes time to be reelected.

That's how it works.

[FLAprogressive]

6. I assume that these districts elected Democrats because they expect them to vote for things like

economic fairness....and equal pay for women.

[MADem]

14. A lot of the conservative districts voted for the Democrats because they

were not quite so far-right as their opponents. or the Democrat was more pleasant, or they knew his "Deddy" and his "grand-deddy" from way back when.

Not all Democrats are progressives. They come in all favors, to include Blue Dog and "Pro Life Conservative." They don't march in lockstep. Some come from Right To Work (which means Right To Fire) states, and they're not going to upset that applecart, because they know they won't keep their job if they do.

It's just how it is. And there's no "mandate"--Obama or no Obama--to get rid of these people and replace them with more liberal players--at the local level. All politics IS local, and most people like their representatives, even if they don't like their national leadership.

[FLAprogressive]

17. we need to quit wasting money on them then...

the DCCC spends millions on these right wing losers

[MADem]

20. Look, here's the truth. They may be right wing, but they are OUR right wing.

When "party discipline" NEEDS to be enforced, they're ours. And we can count on their vote, because they'll be out on their ass if they don't do what their Speaker/Majority Leader tell them to do.

In these conservative districts, if you "quit wasting money on them" they will be replaced by a Republican. That Republican will NOT vote the way we want him or her to vote, when we need a "party discipline" vote.

Again, the whole party is not all progressive, all the time. The progressive wing has a strong voice, but it can't dictate to the rest of the bunch. It's a mixed bag, it's got conservatives, moderates, liberals and people who waffle all over hell depending on the issue.

We're not unified and organized, we're Democrats.

[kath]

32. "party discipline"?!?!! Do you really think that such a thing exists in the Dem party?

It's sure been a long time since I've seen such a thing.

"enforced"? - by whom?

[Blue Dog Dominion]

34. We need more of these guys

This "stimulus" presented by the morn Pelosi is so full of pork it is leaking fatback onto the floor.

Pelosi is a coward and traitor to the President for crafting this bill.

[LWolf]

36. I'm not a fan.

For different reasons. This bill doesn't go as far as I'd like. I'd like Kucinich's plan, detailed during the primaries.

Still, it's a step in the right direction.

I'm not a fan of Pelosi because she refused to hold GWB and his administration accountable, among other things.

That made her, in my eyes, a traitor to her country. I have a long memory, and I'm not going to forgive her in this lifetime. Still, I don't see her being a "traitor" to Obama.

We need to boot the blue dogs out. We have enough opposition to sanity from republicans. We don't need more from within the party.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blondeatlast]

65. + "donation to primary opponents." But that's 4 words. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I sure hope the Dems in their districts make them among the unemployed in 2 years

[FLAprogressive]

7. If any Dems deserve to lose, it's the right-wingers

[Blue Dog Dominion]

35. No, its the left-wing Democrats that have always been the problem

Why do you think we lost Congress in the 90's? We are going to lose it again if the nutjobs take over.

[Solon]

52. Why do you consider them nutjobs? n/t

[Wiley50]

9. Doubtful with Cooper. We've tried for years to get rid of him here

I am completely unrepresented here in TN

[FLAprogressive]

5. Added a "*" for those who voted against fair pay for women

[bobthedrummer]

8. Thanks for posting them.

[angrycarpenter]

10. I am sad to say I voted for Boyd

twice simply because he was the democrat on the ticket. On the really important things there is no difference between him and any republican. He has made me ashamed of voting for him every time a pivotal vote has come up.

[FLAprogressive]

12. He's an asshole and he might run for senate. Hope he gets killed in the primary if so

not literally "killed" of course.

[tsuki]

58. I'll be screaming blue, bloody murder. nt

[depakid]

11. Largely southern Dems

This is a small point of disagreement I have with the 50 state strategy. Being beholden to southern Democrats (or the whack south) has historically brought many problems to the country.

Trumans attempts at universal health care failed due to southern Dems- and they're responsible for Scalia and Thomas being on the Supreme Court (to name but a very few).

Politically speaking it's much better for everyone INCLUDING southerners, if their region had little or no political power over the nation.

[Uzybone]

13. Its only 11 of em

they are like the bitter aftertaste of a great beer.

[madfloridian]

15. There were some progressive Southern Dems running...

But they were edged out for the Blue Dog types by Rahm...and even Van Hollen.

I don't care what kind of strategy we use, if they kick progressives out in the primary we will never change congress.

[FLAprogressive]

16. shh....the DCCC lovers will tell you that these are the only Dems that could get elected

in those districts.

But look at Tom Perriello....a progressive representing a rural Virginia district. How about Larry Kissell? How about Carol Shea-Porter?

madfloridian, you are a DU hero.

[depakid]

21. Yep- that's essentially my point.

Dysfunctional ideology and behavior doesn't always come with an "R" behind the name.

[misanthrope]

26. This lifelong Southerner agrees with you...

...There's little difference for me in what you suggest and what exists already. I've been politically disenfranchised in my almost three decades of voting for national offices anyway. I've never voted for a winning congressional or senatorial candidate. None of my votes for president have counted as my state's electors have never been awarded to my candidate.

[Shardik]

18. My letter to Parker Griffeth

I voted for you and am extremely displeased that you sided with the Republicans on the stimulus package.

While I know you are an intelligent man and I would like to hope your motives are pure, your decision to side with those that feel that what brought us to this economic precipice is what will get us off that precipice is wrong.

Please support our President and your party as well as your constituents. Madison County has a majority of the brightest and best in the state and I beg that you don't try to please the lowest common denominator in an effort to appease the status quo.

Please, Congressman... We're at a rough time in history. It is time for change because the old ways have shed their costumes of motive for robber baron status. It's time for change and Senators with the guts to make it happen and make history with their decisions to save our country from what the last many years of unchecked and unregulated corporatism. You work for us. The people. Not the people that exploit us.

Thank you.

[stillcool]

24. Thank You for doing that...

:fistbump:

[FLAprogressive]

25. Nice letter but good luck. he's a corporate shill the DCCC spent LOTS of money on.

[kestrel91316]

19. We need to start RIGHT NOW helping their more liberal opponents

so that come primary time, none of these freaks have a snowball's chance in hell of being re-elected.

[Rage for Order]

22. Gene Taylor is VERY popular in his district

And has never shown any racist inclinations. He was (and still is) a great champion for those on the Mississippi Gulf Coast whose lives were adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.

But thanks for playing

[FLAprogressive]

23. Hmm, not racist you say?

"{Taylor} was one of only 15 Congressional Democrats to cast a vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1990.

In 2006, Taylor was the only Democrat in the House to vote in favor of all amendments to the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act."

[Rage for Order]

27. And what, exactly, did that bill call for?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6D91F3FF936A25756C0A966958260

The legislation would, in effect, reverse the Supreme Court ruling in one of the most closely watched civil rights cases of last year, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, in which the Court narrowed the scope of a law that allowed minorities to bring damage suits for acts of racial discrimination.

The bill would also restore the legal burden on employers in discrimination cases to prove that hiring practices were required by business necessity.

Another Court case the legislation is designed to address, Wards Cove Packing v. Atonio, dealt with lawsuits trying to show by use of statistical evidence that an employer's policies have resulted in discrimination against broad groups of workers. Sections of the Kennedy-Hawkins bill that deal with such cases have generated the criticism about establishing quotas.

Robert Woodson, the President of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, suggested that the President should set both versions of the bill aside and ''go back to the drawing boards and really construct legislation that addresses the critical needs of people whose brains are being blown out in these inner cities, whose families are in crisis.''


Please point to the racism inherent in the vote against this bill.

[Ichingcarpenter]

29. He gets 100% rating from the Christian Coalition & 60% from John Birch society

http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=26932

[Rage for Order]

30. So that makes him a racist? n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

43. Facts on the John Birch Society

FACT: The JBS supported un-repentant Neo-Nazi Carol Howe and hailed her as a hero, even giving her front cover of the New American magazine, the OFFICIAL publication of the John Birch Society in their September 1997 edition, in addition to writing many more articles in admiration of Howe. Carol Howe, a woman who hates Jews, Blacks and the Federal Government, who lived in sin with a Skinhead and was head of a neo-nazi party based in Oklahoma as well as a member of the White Aryan Resistance.


FACT: Tom Metzger, founder and leader of the White Aryan Resistance was also an active leader in the John Birch Society in the Fallbrook, California area. No wonder the JBS supported Carol Howe.


FACT: The John Birch Society has many members who are also active members of the Ku Klux Klan, Militia, Nazi Party, and many other ultra right extremists anti-government groups.


FACT: The JBS has published publication after publication calling Dr. Martin Luther King a communist and trying to tear down all the work Dr. King spent his life doing to bring about racial reconciliation.

[Rage for Order]

45. Now you're just being silly

The funny thing about "facts", as you like to put them, is that they can cut both ways. From the link you provided earlier:

http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=26932

Representative Taylor supported the interests of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 64 percent in 2007.


So let's see - the John Birch Society gave him a rating of 60, which makes Taylor racist. However, the NAACP gave him a rating of 64, so what does that mean? He was more favored by the NAACP than he was by the John Birch Society. Your howls of racism are ringing very hollow indeed.

On edit: for a bit more of a track record, Representative Taylor supported the interests of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 56 percent in 2005-2006.

So over the most recent 3 year period listed, 2005-2007, Taylor had 56 and 64 from the NAACP, or an average of roughly 60 over the past 3 years. That's the same number you quoted from the John Birch Society. I'm curious to see how you reconcile these facts with your claims of racism.

[Ichingcarpenter]

47. Well he must be your "kind' ' of democrat

You totally ignore the 100% Christian Coalition support that
was started and funded by Pat Robertson.

[Rage for Order]

48. You claimed he was racist

That didn't pan out for you, so now he's too Christian?

Judging by the ratings he's gotten on the website you provided, he appears to be a middle of the road Democrat (lots of numbers around 50). Unlike you, I don't believe that all Democrats have to agree on every single issue in order to call themselves Democrats. He may not be as liberal as you would like, but that doesn't make him a racist or a DINO.

[Ichingcarpenter]

49. I never said he was racist...... you got the wrong person

that claimed that.


but he sure the hell an't a democrat maybe a dixiecrat
but not a democrat.

Pat Robertson is your kind of Christian??

Yeah, Right.

[Rage for Order]

50. Fair enough...you never said that

But by the same token, I most certainly never said "Pat Robertson is your (my) kind of Christian"

However, I had replied to a poster who said he was racist. I said he had never shown any racist inclinations, and at that point you started responding. I took that to mean that you did think he was racist. So, while you did not directly state that Taylor is a racist, it seemed implicit by your postings. I apologize if I misinterpreted the intent of your posts.

However, the fact remains that although I may not agree with Taylor on all issues (and frankly, the only person I agree on all issues with is myself), the fact that he's voted one way on some bills when I wished he had voted another does not mean he is a racist, dixiecrat, DINO, fundie zealot, or any other host of pejoratives.

I don't subscribe to the "you're either with us or against us" brand of politics. I think people can respectfully disagree without one of the two people being inherently bad.

[jobycom]

55. I've never seen him to be racist, either. Wondered about that.

He's trying to hold a seat in a conservative district. He's done a tremendous job standing up for the Coast and fighting Bush and his failures with FEMA. He couldn't win as a liberal in his district, but he hasn't been a supporter of BushCo, either, and that's pretty good, coming from Trent Lott's original district.

[FLAprogressive]

60. he's supported BushCo quite a bit. oughta switch parties.

[jobycom]

64. You don't know anything about him, then.

Not a thing.

[FLAprogressive]

67. big whup. he got upset about Katrina

still sold out for BushCo on FISA, the Federal Marriage Amendment, Iraq War, etc.

[jobycom]

68. And he opposed him on a lot, too, unlike any Republican who would win the seat

if Taylor ran as a liberal. He's a wink-nod kind of Democrat, voting as far to the left as the district will let him. Democrats in his district know that, and have made a great effort to keep Taylor in that seat, which is as far to the left as it can be. That's not far, but it beats the type who would hold the seat otherwise.

[Blue Dog Dominion]

28. Dissapointing. I was hoping more would jump off Pelosi's ship

Fuckhead moron that she is, she ignores the President's request to get some bipartisanship participiation on this bill. What would it cost her, pride? Instead she drills through a package that no one but her lackey's have any input. If she cared about the non-stimulus riders so much she could have ram-rodded that through instead.

Pelosi is ticking bomb waiting to go off.

[Odin2005]

41. Freeperland is over there, you will find idiots over there more receptive to your BS.

[LibDemAlways]

31. Kanjorski represents a part of northeast PA that is

largely made up of the elderly and people employed in the service sector. It has been economically depressed for years. His voting against this package makes no sense at all.

[old mark]

33. Do you think he was drunk and made a mistake? nt

[mmonk]

37. When we discuss numbers, it is important to realize they can't be

counted as anything in our favor.

[bdamomma]

38. read this article

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-29/the-south-rises-again/full/

[mmonk]

39. While I think there are some salient points, it's not completely that simple

Overwhelmingly most southern Democratic members of Congress voted for Obama's stimulus.

[Odin2005]

40. Western Minnesotans to Collin Peterson: FUCK YOU AND DROP DEAD!!!

:grr:

[madinmaryland]

42. Kratovil got elected by a slim margin, by splitting the repub vote. The repubs

had a brutal primary and the loser (who was the incumbant) supported Kratovil. It's a very conservative district, and probably will revert back to the repukes in the next election.

[4 t 4]

46. Every single Repub

voted against it-every single one there was not one of them that voted for it not one

[Bonn1997]

51. Bobby Bright is my representative...what can I do?

Should I just write to him saying I voted for him and hope he supports the final version of the bill after the Senate and House compromise?

[lib2DaBone]

53. I'm surprised about Paul Kanjorski (D) Pennsylvania.....

.. as hard as that State has been hit by unemployment... steel mills closing, ship yards closing.. roads are a mess...

Why do people in PA put up with this guy?

[Redneck Socialist]

54. About nine of those folks represent districts that McCain won.

What did you expect them to do?

With the corollary being, would you rather they have a R next to their name?

[lib2DaBone]

56. ya, ..i see what you are saying. ..Its a shame,,,,

I dont think America is center Right... I think America is Far Left.. but the Corporate Media will never let it be told.

[Redneck Socialist]

59. I agree, but...

plugging that into a 30 second commercial won't win you many elections.

Many, many times the Reps on that list will vote in ways that I find reprehensible, but I'll still take them over the alternative, which is a Republican that will almost always vote in ways that I find reprehensible.

<shrug>

The sad truth is that there are many places in this country were true progressives will never be elected.

[FLAprogressive]

61. they might as well have "R"'s next to their names. They vote like "R"'s

[Redneck Socialist]

62. Some of the time...

...maybe even most of the time, but those "D's" count towards our majority and being in the majority means everything.

[tsuki]

57. Allen Boyd - I went to the polls this year and thought that I had to vote

the big "D." I got to Allen Boyd and had to leave the square blank.

If you are not an O-5 Ret., Boyd has no time for you.

[cynatnite]

63. It's also proof that politics are local....

Most of these folks would lose their seats to repukes if they don't watch their votes. Check out their states.

[ShortnFiery]

66. Six of them are members of the Blue Dog Coalition within Congress.

:(

http://www.bluedogdems.com/members.html