As difficult as it is to believe, there are even varying degrees of loyalty to Bush within the 41 Bush Dogs. The following six Democrats not only voted for a blank check on Iraq, not only voted to continue warrant-less government spying on American citizens through FISA, but also voted against S-Chip:
Vital Stats on “The Ultimate Bush Dogs”
Member
District
PVI
Term #
2006 win %
New Dem
Blue Dog
Boren
OK-02
R +4.9
2nd
73%
No
Yes
Ethridge
NC-02
R +2.7
6th
66%
Yes
No
Hill
IN-09
R +7.1
1st / 4th*
50%
Yes
Yes
Marshall
GA-08
R +8
3rd
51%
No
Yes
McIntyre
NC-07
R +2.8
6th
73%
Yes
Yes
Taylor
MS-04
R +16.3
10th
80%
No
Yes
At this point, if you favor an endless Iraq war, warrant-less spying on American citizens, and denying poor kids health care, why on earth is someone a Democrat? Let me rephrase that, since this goes beyond partisan self-identification: how can you do those three things and sleep at night? Funding an open-ended occupation of a foreign country that has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, while spying on those within your own country who oppose that war, and then denying health care to poor children seems like a pretty good definition of not only a bad Democrat, but simply a bad person. I don't typically utilize moralistic language of this sort, but that is a pretty heinous combination of votes for anyone to take, Republican or Democrat. Oh, and all three of those positions run contrary to the constituents of these districts, too.
Last week the DCCC kicked off their "Putting Children First" campaign to remind voters which Republicans conspired with the Bush Regime to sabotage the S-CHIP legislation. The DCCC, as well as citizen activist groups and labor unions, is spending millions of dollars on radio ads, robo calls, and a targeted e-mail campaign. Blue America applauds their efforts….
So we want to lend the D-Trip a hand. There are only 5 reactionary renegade Democrats who are supporting Bush instead of their constituents on this. We don't think there should be any Democrats in that camp. So we've taken a cue from the DCCC and we're running a campaign of phone calls into the districts of the 5 bad Dems:
Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
Bob Etheridge (D-NC)
Baron Hill (D-IN)
Gene Taylor (D-MS)
You can listen to a sample call here. If it is good for the DCCC to do this against Republicans who voted against S-Chip, then it is good to do the same thing against Democrats who voted against it, too. Howie Klein also has information on calls you can make to these representatives yourself:
Jim Marshall (D-GA)–Washington, D.C. Office (202)225-6531; Macon, GA Office 1-877-464-0255; Tifton, GA Office (229)556-7418.
Baron Hill (D-IN)–Washington, D.C. Office (202)225-5315; Jeffersonville, IN Office (812)288-3999; Bloomington, IN Office (812)336-3000.
Gene Taylor (D-MS)–Washington, D.C. Office (202)225-5772; Bay St. Louis, MS Office (228)469-9235; Gulfport, MS Office (228)864-7670; Ocean Springs, MS Office (228)872-7950; Hattiesburg, MS Office (601)582-3246; Laurel, MS Office (601)425-3905.
Bob Etheridge (D-NC)–Washington, D.C. Office (202)225-4531; Raleigh, NC Office (919)829-9122 or 1-888-262-6202; Lillington, NC Office (910)814-0335 or 1-866-384-3743.
Finally, Blue American deserves some love for this, and you can contribute to here. Instead of spending money to defend Democrats likethe ultra-Bush Dogs, let's spend some money to help raise awareness on their pro-Bush voting records.
