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October 31, 2010

Will Blue Dog Anger Thwart Lame Duck Danger?

By Daryl Montgomery and Jack Kemp

We've seen articles that talk of the big plans Pelosi-Reid-Obama have for the Lame Duck Session of Congress, yet there is one other factor that might come into play to thwart them. CitizenLink predicts half of the 54 seat Blue Dog coalition will lose their upcoming elections and that could (not guaranteed, but could) lead to a different scenario than the one the Democratic leadership planned.

Let's say someone is a conservative Blue Dog Democrat who won a House seat in 2006 or 2008 and had their arm twisted to vote for the ObamaCare program, Cap and Trade, and the TARP program. Let's also say - hypothetically - that Blue Dog gets voted out of office in a few days. His political career is then through and an ambassadorship to remote and unimportant spots is a poor consolation prize. Sure, he could become a lobbyist, but they could have become one of those without the Democratic Party stabbing...er..."helping" them.

Now these Blue Dogs come back for the Lame Duck Session and Nancy Pelosi figures they are a "sure vote" for her agenda. Maybe - and realistically - many of them might be embittered and not feel like joining the orchestra on the Titanic in playing the last tunes on the bandleader's playlist. And, like Rhode Island Democrat Gubernatorial Frank Caprio, who famously told the President to (Take This Job and) Shove It, those Blue Dogs may substitute Johnny Paycheck's tune or the Julie Styne classic "The Party's Over" on their music stand.

What I'm saying is that bitter conservative Democrats - who have been thrown under the bus in a New York Times Op-Ed ("Boot the Blue Dogs") are seen by  "true Democrats" as comrades they will be happy to see go because they aren't real comrades "down for the fight (or fill your own last word in here)."  Those Blue Dogs may just react to this abandonment with an abandonment of support for the Democratic Party's socialist agenda this Lame Duck Session. In fact, even if those Lame Duck bills get passed in late November, they face significant uncertainty in getting funded during the new Congressional session that starts in January.

I know a number of readers are now saying I'm engaging in wishful conservative thinking, and, to an extent, they are right. But the fearful Reptilian Brains that Obama chastised the Tea Party/Republican voters for being stuck in, the ones that were unfortunately - for Mr. Obama's Party - reactivated by the news of package bombs being flown towards the United States from Yemen - are not the sole property of conservatives. Spite, revenge, feelings of betrayal and being "used and abandoned" are not limited to human beings who support only one major American political party or sit on one side of the Congress's chambers. Recall the PUMAs and the recent open letter to Rush Limbaugh.
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