Don’t cry for the Blue Dogs:
Compared to the 2006 and 2008 cycles, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sought a cadre of Blue Dog Democrats to re-take the House, there aren’t nearly as many self-identified Blue Dogs set to run this time around. And that fact is causing some consternation.
An aide close to the Blue Dogs told The Fix that the group “is not happy with DCCC’s progress in recruiting moderates.” Added the aide: “The recruiting that we’ve done, we’ve done ourselves.”
The aide did say that the committee is starting to come around and recruit more moderates, but it’s also very late in the recruiting season right now, with filing deadlines passed in many states.Added another Blue Dog sympathizer: “The Democratic Party on all sides needs to realize that if they don’t hold moderates, they don’t hold these seats. … You have our people on the left, labor, and they pull stunts like this in Pennsylvania, the party will have a great time having meetings in the Rayburn Room outside the Speakers office for a long time.”
The problem is that the Blue Dogs haven’t been moderates. I think we can all understand, even if we don’t like it, that certain areas of the country are very culturally conservative. We don’t expect a Democrat from Tupelo, Mississippi to be with us on every issue. But on fiscal matters, on priorities like education and health and transportation and R&D and the safety net and regulation of Wall Street, we have every right to expect a Southern Democrat to be a Democrat. But the Blue Dogs are always and forever undermining us on those issues and taking the side of budget hawks, privatizers, and the Chamber of Commerce. The Blue Dogs aren’t moderates. With a few exceptions, they’re just warmed over Republicans. And as the Republicans move further and further to the right, the Blue Dogs drift with them.
We need to win back a lot of their districts. But we can do that with economic populists. And that is what we should do.
