Basic Housekeeping

What is a Blue Dog????
Good Question. In general, a Blue Dog is a Democrat that strays from the Democratic Party’s liberal orthodoxy on most, or at least several, issues.
I have seen the Blue Dogs kind of splinter in recent years into two camps. The first camp is what I’ll call the populist camp. The tend to come from the Midwest and Appalachia, and are to the left on economic issues -- anti free-trade, pro-union, etc. The second camp is I guess of a more traditional conservatives, tending to favor business, free trade, deficit reduction, etc. The tend to come from the so-called Red States, mainly the South and the Rocky Mountain States. I happen to be of the latter camp.

Most Blue Dogs are probably of the former camp. Recently, Blue Dogs have been key in implementing PAYGO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAYGO and in blocking the Employee Free Choice Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Free_Choice_Act and President Obama's Healthcare Reform proposals.

In the current Congress, we seem to be exerting more and more influence.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/07/22/healthcare/index.html?source=rss