I'm less focused on how Blue Dog Democrats supported Bush's Iraq War in the past--it was a dishonest, craven, stupid and failed political gamble--than I am how about these 40 or so Dems of now are posturing about the deficits in Obama's budget. As James Wolcott would say, but more literately, they got the vapors about the deficits when many of them--maybe most--are princes and princesses of "pork" in their own right. As was pointed out in the campaign, less than 2% of the overall budget can be described as earmarks. As Digby points out, some of the earmarks are easy targets because the projects have funny sounding names: Mormon cricket conrol studies, tattoo removal, etc. Well, a plague of Mormon crickets is no joke to farmers in Utah and other places west...and tattoo removal is an important part of a program designed to help former gang members become re-integrated into society. No doubt there are some unworthy
earmarks--but these are gnats compared to when you get rampaging elephants in the shop: no bid contracts and unneeded cold war weapons systems.
The blogs Open Left and Moveon.org and some other outfits are joining together to form the project Accountability Now to enourage primary challenges to those Blue Dogs who don't seem to understand that unless we hang together we shall hang separately, in a manner of political speaking.
Saint Lloyd Doggett is my Congressman, but, hell, if I lived in a Blue Dog District, was younger and not quite so weird, I'd consider running myself...
http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/
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