WHO ARE THE BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS?
WHY DO THEY YELP, "50, 25, 25...OR FIGHT!"

by Patrick Killough [8/23/00]

Democratic Party candidate Sam Neill of Hendersonville spoke July 27 to an Asheville business group. He talked as if he plans to take away the 11th Congressional district [of North Carolina] seat from incumbent Charles Taylor by attacking from the right!  Some listeners questioned Mr Neill's conservatism. Others said privately that he is a non-ideological pick by deep-pocketed kingmakers. One drawled that Sam Neill, a candidate who does not come across as viscerally political, must have had to shop around quickly for experienced Democratic Party mentors. If so, then he found them among the "Blue Dogs."

Win or lose, Sam Neill is educating us about a good natured Democraticgroup in the U.S. House of Representatives calling itself The Blue DogCoalition. For more information see their Congressional web site: http://www.house.gov/john/bluedog/welcome.html

Who are these Democrats whose logo is the head of a blue hound? And why is Congressional candidate Sam Neill so busy coloring himself blue?

By 1994 a score of moderate-to-conservative House Democrats judged that they had been "choked blue" by liberal Congressional colleagues. So theformed the Blue Dog Coalition. It began mainly white, male and Southern. Some of the founders later became Republicans. By 1998 Conservative to Moderate Democrats were winning or winning back seats recently lost to Republicans. This earned the Blue Dogs fresh respect. The Dogs welcomed their newly elected Congressmen as "Blue Pups" or "Blue Puppies." Blue Dogs now number 30 and include women, blacks and Northerners.

On the very day Sam Neill spoke in Asheville, the Blue Dog Coalition issued a detailed statement on the federal budget. Their paramount goal is complete elimination of the national debt by 2010. Other aims are 

"tax relief for small businesses and working families, and investment in priority programs, including health care, defense, veterans, and agriculture."
Nationally, Blue Dogs do not see themselves as "hard right." They are
trying to build a bridge between the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress. They settle for injecting reason and moderation into the Democratic caucus of which they are but a tiny part. Blue Dogs growl against legislative paralysis. They create a middle ground. They broker compromises. Republicans enjoy at best a six-vote margin in the House. So when the Blue Dogs bay, Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert perks up his ears. Those hounds have big blue paws and leave their imprint on budgets.

The Blue Dogs bark "50,25, 25!" That is shorthand for how they propose to spend the mammoth national surpluses:

--50% to pay off the national debt by 2010,

--25% for tax cuts and

--25% for new spending.

Leader of the Blue Dogs is cowboy-booted Charles Stenholm of thinly
populated (20 people per square mile) West Central Texas. His 17th District includes towns named Tarzan, Chico, Buffalo Gap and Texas (that is right: Texas, Texas!). Better known are the cities of Abilene and San Angelo. Under Stenholm's hot Texas sun grow and thrive sheep and goats, ostriches and emus, cotton and mesquite.

Sam Neill and his new hound dog friends sound like a lot of fun. May they have a pleasant hunt! Tally ho! Still, one wet blanket was seen shaking his head and muttering after the Asheville speech in which Sam Neill proclaimed his canine connections. That person said, 

"Seems to me that someone who
falls asleep with dogs is likely to wake up with fleas."


-OOO-

 Tribune Column  8/23/00
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[revisited 04/15/05]