Pelosi & Dems Must Fear the Disgruntled Blue Dogs … Ready to Break Ranks & Cut Deals with Republicans

It would appear that House Democrat Minority leader Nancy Pelosi has a difficult next two years in store for her. Disgruntled “Blue Dog” Democrats are ready to deal with the GOP and break ranks with Pelosi. So many “blue dogs” were voted out of office in the 2010 midterm elections as upset voters showed them the door for voting with Pelosi rather than the will of their constituents.

Blue Dog Democrats remain deeply frustrated with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s leadership and are signaling they are ready to break ranks and cut deals with Republicans.

In an interview with Roll Call last week, the leadership team of the fiscally conservative group talked about its vision for the 112th Congress — and its frustration over how Pelosi ran the 111th.

The California Democrat has yet to reach out to the moderate bloc since Democrats lost the majority, nor has she acknowledged any mistakes, they argued. Blue Dogs remain flummoxed over her decision to stay on as the party’s leader after she presided over what they consider to be a series of political blunders that led to Democrats’ historic defeat at the polls on Nov. 2, and most of them refused to vote for Pelosi for Speaker on the floor last week.

 It would appear that these Democrats will act in a bi-partisan manner and vote the will of the people, rather than the will of Pelosi and the Democrat leadership. Blue dogs can be none too happy that after the failures of Pelosi’s 111th Congress and the election tsunami that saw Dems lose controll of the House, that Pelosi would retain power as minority leader.

“We have an opportunity that’s the same opportunity the Blue Dogs did with welfare reform,” said Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah), who co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition’s political action committee and replaced retired Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.) as one of the Democratic Caucus’ chief deputy whips. “They were the bridge and they were the group that held that together in a bipartisan way to make it happen.”

“We would welcome an opportunity to work with this new majority and the White House on developing a responsible plan to put us on a path toward restoring fiscal discipline and accountability to our government,” the Arkansas Democrat said. “We think we’re the perfect group to do that.”