From The Hill:
Blue Dog Democrats might support a plan from House Republicans to cut $32 billion in discretionary spending this year, a spokesman for the fiscally conservative bloc said Monday.
Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said the Blue Dogs are waiting to see the details of the proposed GOP cuts before taking a position. The draft legislation from the House Appropriations Committee is due on Thursday…
This could just be something Democrats are doing – Nancy Pelosi already has a high enough hill to climb in 2012 if she wants her old job back. If she forces the remaining Blue Dogs to walk the tax and spend liberalism plank, then her task goes from “extraordinarily hard” to “existentially impossible”. On the other hand and especially in light of other 2012 news, this might signal a willingness on the part of some Democrats to break away from the Democrat leadership – perhaps, eventually, in a permanent manner.
The fact of the matter is that if you are someone who can’t go GOP because we have become too conservative for your views (maybe, for instance, you are genuinely pro-life but also like a lot of social spending), you need an alternative the Democrats cannot provide because they have become too liberal. A new party of genuine centrist could appeal to people like the Blue Dogs and their supporters – as well as appeal to a segment of the GOP (people like Senator Susan Collins of Maine and her supporters). Much could be made of this – not, to begin with, a majority party, but certainly a party a lot of people would be comfortable with.
We’ll have to see how this plays out, but 2012 could get very interesting.
UPDATE: And the centrist Democrat Leadership Council is bankrupt. Obama seems to be presiding over a party crumbling from the bottom up.
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