Vital Statistics On The "Bush Dogs"by: Chris BowersThu Aug 16, 2007 at 15:18:29 PM EDT |
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| The two biggest defeats for House Democrats so far in 2007 have been the capitulation vote on Iraq, and the vote to allow Alberto Gonzales warrant-less wiretapping powers. Here are some vital statistics on the 38 Democrats, the “Bush Dogs,” who voted in favor of both bills, and thus are the most likely to capitulate on important fights in the future: Vital Stats on “Bush Dogs”
Notes PVI = Partisan Voting Index, produced by Cook Political Report * = Non-consecutive terms in Congress ** = Received significant national blogosphere support Also, Tim Walz did vote in favor of the McGovern amendment. All others voted nay on that amendment, and are clearly ideologically opposed to progressives in this area. Who is out of step with their districts here? Well, basically everyone, considering only a dozen congressional districts have either majorities or pluralities opposed to withdrawal. The most egregious offenders are Lipinski, Cooper and Costa, who come from solidly Democratic districts. Boswell, Ross, Tanner and Wilson come from districts that, as of 2004, leaned slightly Democratic, and probably lean even more so now. Altmire, Barrow, Boyd, Cuellar, Lincoln Davis, Etheridge, McIntyre, Synder and Walz all come from districts with partisan voting indexes that lean Republican, but which do so by a smaller amount than Democrats won the national House vote in 2006 (in other words, districts that a probably slightly lean blue these days). Those are the 16 districts where it strikes me that the most pressure, including both potential and real primary challenges, can be successfully applied. I'll stop the analysis there, for now. The purpose of this post was to identify the core list of Bush Dogs, as well as provide information on their districts, their relationship to centrist (New Dem) and conservative (Blue Dog) House caucuses, whether or not they are freshman, and whether or not they received national blogosphere support when they first won their seats in Congress. Hopefully, this can serve as a reference point for the upcoming fights we face on Iraq and FISA. For now, I will leave the rest of the analysis to you. |
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