Blue Dogs

Clearly winner-take-all amplifies partisanship and polarization in Congress; it is therefore antagonistic toward the goal of achieving a more collaborative and collegial legislature.

WASHINGTON -- It was a not-so-super Tuesday for Pennsylvania's Blue Dog Democrats. Reps. Tim Holden (D-Pa.) and Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), both members...

Southern Democracy -- defined as entrenched regional rule -- is no more. Republicans now reign throughout most of the South. The best that Southern Democrats can hope for is restoring their party to competitive parity in a two-party system.

I firmly believe that it takes both Yellow Dogs and Blue Dogs for Democrats to win in most Southern elections. The hitch is that there are few Blue Dogs left out there to be wooed.

It may sound like a cynical summarization, but the major problem is that these Democrats are struggling with a tough choice between practicality and ideology in a pretty red region -- with each course representing an uncertain gamble.

As the current, unfolding election season demonstrates, the excitement and energy of partisan politics lies mainly in Republican campaigns in the South, while the historically-dominant Democrats mainly sit and stew in envy.

WASHINGTON — With the federal government racking up deficits of more than $1 trillion a year and lawmakers paralyzed by political differences, t...

While there is a growing progressive trend supporting vetoes of radical right-wing legislation, there is a definite backlash against centrist, populist, Blue Dog-style Democrats in North Carolina and all across the South.

WASHINGTON -- When it comes to congressional alliances, progressive Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Blue Dog Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) aren't usual...

It's time for the NRA to stop playing footsie with domestic terrorists and those who plot to kill cops and judges, just to pad their bottom line.

Bullying summit? Michelle, please teach Barack how to defend himself.

I've just received an email solicitation from Charles Chamberlain at DFA, asking that I contribute to help keep the ActBlue ad running in Wisconsin. ...

With some regularity, this column excoriates the mainstream news media for all sorts of continued idiocy in the way it conducts its business. But eve...

The president, by reaching out to business, is helping get millions of Americans back to work and at the same time increasing his chances of being elected to a second-term in the White House.

WASHINGTON -- A major swath of the conservative Democratic Blue Dog caucus has written a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for neither "delay" nor...

This Thanksgiving, I want to thank those Democrats from moderate districts who voted to do what they thought was right for the country, even though they knew there might be negative short-term political consequences.

Two years ago, a post-Bush Republican Party that couldn't find itself on Google Maps was thoroughly thrashed for the second time in as many elections....

The Blue Dogs are right about campaign strategy in some conservative districts -- but they greatly overstate their case. Granularity is usually lost in our political narrative, and the numbers suggest subtle, diverging politics.

I've never been a huge Pelosi fan, but there's no denying the success she had as speaker, not least in keeping a rather disunited party together, and, with Republicans itching for a fight, she may just be the best person for the job.

Any pundit who advises Obama to "move to the center" must be required to define exactly what he or she means by "center." The political "center" of American politics is a moving target.

It's a little ironic that Harry Reid's keeping his majority leader role while Pelosi's losing hers. In a very real sense, the House was punished for the sins of the Senate. The loss of Pelosi's leadership would be a victory for ugliest impulses among us.

The Blue Dog caucus was literally cut in half yesterday, from 54 to 26 members. Now people can argue whether that is good or bad -- but no serious political observer can say the strategy worked.

WASHINGTON -- Tuesday was a tough night for Democrats, as they watched Republicans win enough seats to take back the House in the next Congress and be...

Based on my experience from the 1994 cycle and based on the poll of independents that we did, I offer these suggestions to those surviving Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats that come back into Congress licking their severe wounds.