The Rise Of The Blue Dogs

The Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats that has grown to 43 members in the 110th Congress has begun yielding a large amount of power within the Democratic majority, but despite the conventional wisdom, they have become strong defenders of the Speaker.

The Blue Dogs are ideologically much farther to the right than Speaker Pelosi, they have become some of the strongest opponents of the President's Iraq policy and of reckless spending, which seems to have grown under Bush.

The Blue Dogs see their coalition as important, as they have earned nine new members from the 2006 election;
Mike Arcuri (D-New York)
Joe Donnolley (D-Indiana)
Brad Ellsworth (D-Indiana)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York)
Baron Hill (D-Indiana)
Tim Mahoney (D-Florida)
Patrick Murphy (D-Pennsylvania)
Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina)
Charlie Wilson (D-Ohio)

Of the nine new members, only Murphy in Pennsylvania represents a district won by Kerry. In fact, of the 43 members, only 10 represent Kerry districts.

What does this mean to the liberal wing of the party? Not much, as Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-California) points out, almost the same number of freshman joined her Congressional Progressive Caucus, which aligns with the more liberal wing of the party.
She's right, I count nine;
Rep. Phil Hare (D-Illinois)
Rep. John Hall (D-New York)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-New York)
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
Rep. Steven Cohen (D-Tennessee)
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota)
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia)
Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa)

Of them, only Hall of New York's district was won by Bush.

So, while the Democratic majority has brought new rise to the Blue Dogs, as chief negotiators for centrist ideals in Congress, it has given just the same rise to the liberal wing of the party. The Blue Dogs, however, will be seen more often as they will become the negotiators.

An interesting fact too is that three of the new Blue Dogs, the two New Yorkers and Murphy in Pennsylvania, lean liberal on social issues, historically not where the rest of the Blue Dogs have been. The Blue Dogs, like the Democratic majority, seems to have push social issues off to the side for a while.