Blue Dogs Who Became Lap Dogs

Today's Wall Street Journal posted an article entitled, "The Lap Dog Coalition."  I checked it out just on the basis of the name! 

The Wall Street Journal reports:

"In the House of Representatives, the 54 members of the Blue Dog Coalition are the self-described fiscal conservatives in the Democratic caucus. Unfortunately, the description doesn't fit."

The Blue Dogs organized a coalition after the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.  The labeled themselves conservative, but loyal, democrats. 

The article reports:

"In their first Congress, the Blue Dogs mostly lived up to the hype (albeit in an economically conservative environment). In 1995, the average Blue Dog's score on the National Taxpayers Union's congressional score card--which measures how well members vote on matters of taxes, spending and debt--was 52%, while the average Democratic score was 28%."

Unfortunately, after the Democrats took the House back in 2006, things changed.  The article reports:

"Blue Dogs' average NTU scores since then (2007), during Nancy Pelosi's first three years as House speaker, were 10%, 15% and 18%--hardly distinguishable from the average Democratic scores of 6%, 11% and 8%."

In a sense, this is a tribute to Nancy Pelosi's ability to hold together the Democrat vote.  Had the Blue Dogs been willing to, they could have successfully opposed any spending and big government legislation put forth by the House of Representatives--they had the numbers. 

This is a lesson to remember in November.  Right now, at this point in American history, there is no such thing as a conservative Democrat.  As soon as any Democrat elected to the House of Representatives votes for Nancy Pelosi for speaker, they are voting for more spending and bigger government.  If you want to reverse the direction of Congress, your only option is to vote Republican in November.