Senete Bush Dogs: Let's tighten the leash

by: Populista

Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 15:29

Back in August Matt Stoller first floated the idea of a "Bush Dog" campaign against Democratic members of Congress who enable the right-wing through their support of Bush's policies on core progressive values at key moments.

Now the campaign is in full flight. If you type "Bush Dog Democrat" you now get thousands of results. Profiles of all 38 House Bush Dogs have been completed. Among critics are the DLC, DSCC and insider news source National Jornal.

However it has been primarily focused on House Bush Dogs. However with a little research I found that Senate Bush Dogs are a much bigger problem.

Populista :: Senete Bush Dogs: Let's tighten the leash

The House Bush Dogs were determined on two key votes. To quote Matt "Currently, we're using the capitulation vote on Iraq back in May, 2007, and the disgraceful vote to give Bush warrantless wiretapping powers as proxies for Bush Doggedness. We think that if you voted for both of these, you are an enabler of Bush's policies."

For my Senate Bush Dog list I'm using four key votes: Feingold-Reid, Condemning MoveOn, FISA and capitulation on Iraq.

Based on those votes here are the Senate Bush Dogs.

Name
Progressive Punch Score
Progressive Punch Rank
National Netroots Support
Red State, Purple State, Blue State.

Evan Bayh
79.72
41
No
Red

Thomas Carper
76.45
47
No
Blue

Robert Casey
93.40
10
No
Purple

Kent Conrad
79.65
42
No
Red

Mary Landrieu
74.49
49
No
Red

Blanche Lincon
75.52
48
No
Purple

Claire McCaskill
81.04
40
No
Purple

Barbrara Mikulski
90.11
22
No
Blue

Bill Nelson
82.77
35
No
Purple

Ben Nelson
49.82
51
No
Red

Mark Pryor
77.33
45
No
Purple

Ken Salzar
83.63
32
No
Purple

Jim Webb
86.32
28
Yes
Purple

There you go. 13 Bush Dogs in the Senate. Compared to 39 in the House. There is three times as many Bush Dogs in the House. But there is more then four times as many House members then Senate members.

The Bush Dog campaign is doing great but it needs to focus on the Senate too. I don't think we should primary them but if we put more pressure on them they should at least vote the right way on FISA and not cave on partisan tricks like condemning MoveOn. Barbrara Mikulski has a progressive voting record and is from a progressive state but yet she caves on key issues. She could be a good target to pressure.

I just really think we should focus more on Senate Bush Dogs because I believe they are hurting us more then House Bush Dogs. I'm just a blogger and I don't have any power over the Bush Dog campaign but I urge you all, Matt, Chris, Mike and all the rest to consider adding Senate Bush Dogs to the campaign. I'm willing to profile a Senate Bush Dog if you decide to add them to you're campaign. I'll be willing to help manage it and get people to write profiles.

Lets tighten the leash.

Poll

Should the Bush Dog campaign expand to the Senete?