Sen. Evan Bayh is working to create a Blue Dog coalition in the Senate and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid --quelle surprise!-- is "upbeat" about the idea.
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is trying to mobilize moderate Democratic Senators to form a group based loosely on the House Blue Dog Coalition.
“I think we have a wonderful opportunity to break the gridlock that has existed in Washington for too long,” Bayh said in an interview. “We need to do that in practical ways that will solve problems. The place that will be most important in striking that right balance will be in the Senate.”
Bayh, who has spoken with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) about his initiative, said he is trying to create a faction of moderate Senators who will gather on a weekly basis ahead of the usual Tuesday Democratic Caucus meetings.
Additionally, Bayh envisions inviting outside speakers to address the group, which would also work in concert with third parties that have similar viewpoints, like the Third Way, a nonpartisan progressive think tank.
A Reid spokesman said the Majority Leader was similarly upbeat about the idea.
“Nearly a decade of Republican fiscal irresponsibility has contributed to our current economic crisis,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said in an e-mail statement. “That is why Sen. Reid welcomes Sen. Bayh’s decision to form this group. For we know that Sen. Bayh, like all Democrats, is committed to restoring our nation’s fiscal and economic health.”
Wait. Is Harry Reid really saying that republican irresponsibility can be restored by the very senate democrats that enabled them?
Likely targets for Bayh would include moderate Democrats like Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Jim Webb (Va.), and Sen.-elect Mark Warner (Va.).
Bayh said his aim is to largely focus on public policy issues like the upcoming stimulus bill and energy and climate change.
This isn’t the first time that a band of moderate Senate Democrats have tried to create a loose organization. In the past, former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) held regular meetings with moderate Senators.
Guess so.
As for Bayh, this tidbit and his well known presidential aspirations likely explain his motives:
Should Bayh be successful, it would raise his standing in the Democratic Caucus.
The 52-year-old former presidential candidate is looking to capitalize on the success of the Blue Dog Coalition, a 49-member group of fiscally conservative, pro-business Democrats who have enjoyed considerable fundraising success.
Blue Dog members have become sought after on several key votes, including the recent financial bailout package.
The Blue Dogs expanded their footprint prior to the election, endorsing Warner in the November election, their first time formally backing a Senate candidate.
However, the Senate group won’t be an exact mirror of the Blue Dogs.
“I just don’t think the Senate will ever lend itself to quite as formal an enterprise as the House,” said Bayh, who doesn’t expect there to be an official membership process or a mechanism to keep a tally on votes.
Well I suppose we can thank God, luck, and/or your chosen multiple deities, non-God or Tao for small miracles.
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Now that's cognitive dissonance if I ever saw it
So, since the Republicans screwed the country over, what we should do is validate the more economic small "L" liberals?
Yeah, how's that post-partisan thing working out for you, president-elect? Because, the thing we need to get through this crisis are more tax cuts and privatization, right?
I can't really him, though. Indiana is, after all, the Alabama of the Great Lakes.*
(*No offense meant to the liberals Alabaman's fighting the good fight, down there)
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
You know what's so bad is the economic conservatism
...isn't necessary to win in the South. People say small government and what they really mean is efficient government and a DMV that doesn't take 20 years to process your driver's license. They mean get rid of the bureaucratic red tape not the program. They also mean don't take away our guns but they're ok with more regulation than you'd think. Beyond that there is a very real hatred of government working for the wealthiest that can be tapped by democrats to win. There are lots of people in the South and rural America who are socially moderate (really moderate not code for conservative) that are bigger economic FDR style liberals than the majority of our elected democrats and they're waiting for the party to return to that. They believe the wealthy should pay more, that we should have universal health care, that people should be taken care of in hard times and that government should stop giving to the rich and yet blue dogs keep thinking and promoting otherwise.
Edit to Add:
Just saw hipparchia's post and it summarizes it nicely.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
"waiting for the party to return to that"
Yep, and they all were thrown under the bus by Obama, along with Donna Brazile and our tribunes of the people in the creative class. Racists, doncha know.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
i can't take credit for the words
i stole them all directly from saint molly [i forget what it was i was looking for when i ran across that ev post, but it totally distracted me; i've spent the rest of the evening rereading molly ivins' columns on various websites].
your words here, otoh, really do sum it all up nicely. aside from the hard-core biblicals we've got here and there, you're describing almost everybody i've ever run into [or been related to] in the south and the rural midwest.
Reading St. Molly is a great way
...to pass the time. And I very much enjoyed the sharing!
And thanks. I wish that more fellow democrats, particularly those in power, would actually talk to real people from rural America and the South not just listen to the loud-mouths/biblicals (love that label btw), rely on stereotypes, or worse, buy into to the claims republicans make. The support for FDR economics -- progressive economics -- is eye-popping. It's not wrapped in pretty words and the proper buzzwords but it runs deep.
PB 2.0 - Supplement the wonk!
Damon, I'm not sure I get what you're saying in the first line:
What do you mean here? Usually I get and agree with what you're saying--just not sure what "eoonomic small "L" liberals" refers to. T/U!
I see Bayh as wanting to make the Group of 14 (was that the right number?), the group formed to prevent Senate Dems from filibustering Bush judicial nominees a part of the Dem caucus!! And extend their mandate...to rescuing Repub programs??
Goldarnit. IIRC, the Group never took on all the Repub filibuster threats. Nor did Reid call them on them very often.
Now, Dodd threatening to filibuster telco immunity, that gets called out.
Whassup, pussycat Reid?
Jawbone, small "L" liberals
American conservative ideology is actually liberal on the economy (i.e. hands off). That's what I meant. Blue Dogs and other conservatives are "liberal" (as in the actual economic definition of the word) on the economy. We don't need that. The conservatives liberal view of the economy is what destroyed it.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
An incestuous rivalgasm!
I feel so dirty. I wonder if Harry and Evan do, too.
It used to be that you had to include an actual rival to make bipartisanship. As long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the ponies....
Break the gridlock?!
Is Reid kidding?
It'll lead to more gridlock. One thing you can say for the republicans - with few exceptions, they voted one way and were able to push through a lot of legislation while the dems bumbled around, grumbled weak protests and then usually voted with them.
"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Good thing Hillary is out of the Senate
Now that "bitch" can't give speeches across the country about how it is conservative/GOP policies that have screwed over the country. Nd good thing the Obama adminitstion has shown they don't value or respect Hillary (Faveau, Sam Power, etc) so that international leaders won't have to take her seriously. Personally, I think the "promotion" to State and the lack of response to the photo are linked, but that's just me. I don't trust folks who steal elections.
Only tyrants rig elections.
none of them are trustworthy--
especially nowadays.
there's only one crowd in total control -- and they're all for conservative and GOP policies, tragically.
Evan Byah
Evan Byah is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wellpoint, I blogged about this on correntewire, but too lazy to dig up the link.