blue dogs

The threat from moderate House Democrats to derail health reform legislation over abortion funding concerns is a problem that can be worked out this week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday.
“We are still working on that,” Hoyer said, “but I am reasonably confident. I have talked to people who have varying views [...]

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) had said throughout the August recess that the outcome of this year’s health reform debate will likely hinge on lawmakers’ individual experiences with the sometimes-rowdy town hall forums that marked the break.
In the case of Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), Grassley hit the nail on the head. And if the vocal Blue [...]

Republican strategists bearish on their chances of actually ousting conservative Democrats, but are having some success in splitting them from Obama, Pelosi.

Hastings Wyman has a good piece up at the Southern Political Report, talking to Oklahoma strategists about the NRCC’s eyebrow-raising inclusion of Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) on their target list. The five Republicans who’ve thrown their hats into the ring present basically no threat to Boren; one is a law student at Drexel, one’s a [...]

Saying that he can’t support the health reform bill working its way through the House, Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), a member of the conservative-leaning Blue Dog Democrats, told a town hall gathering yesterday that he supports scrapping the overhaul proposal in favor of more gradual reforms. From CNN:
When a questioner, Ray Evans, said he believed [...]

So reports The Hill, indicating that the conservative-leaning Blue Dog Democrats have struck a deal with House leaders to delay the vote until after the August recess.
In exchange for putting off a floor vote until after Labor Day, the Energy and Commerce Committee may be allowed to continue its markup of the healthcare bill this [...]

House Democrats, who’d hoped to build momentum for health reform by passing a bill before the August vacation, hit a wall in the form of conservative-leaning Democrats who’ve protested the overall costs, low payments to rural health care providers, and the inclusion of a public option.
Yet Yale University political scientist Jacob Hacker makes a good [...]

Here’s a head-scratching quote from today’s Politico piece on how Republicans struggle to deal with conspiracy theorists who don’t think Barack Obama is a legitimate president.
“Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the twin towers down,” said Rep. Collin Peterson, a Democrat who represents a conservative Republican district [...]

Nuclear power courts new friends as it pushes for subsidies in the Senate’s sweeping climate bill.

House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled their long-awaited proposal to overhaul the nation’s health care system, including the creation of a government-backed insurance plan to compete with private companies — a sticking point among most congressional Republicans and a number of conservative-leaning Democrats.
Roll Call reports that the bill is expected to cost more than $1 trillion [...]