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"They'll have to walk across my dead body if they want my vote on this issue," Boren told Fox News on Wednesday. "This is so galvanizing in my district. I think the votes are not there and I don't see where we get them."

WASHINGTON -- Once again, it will be a "no" from Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, on healthcare as congressional Democrats scramble for every critical vote."If the question is whether I would vote for the comprehensive health care bill currently being considered, the answer is 'no,'" Edwards said in a statement to the Star-Telegram. "After listening to my constituents, I voted 'no' on the House bill last year, and I will vote 'no' on the Senate bill this year if it comes up for a vote."Edwards faces the same kind of pressure he did in November, when he broke ranks with most...

The co-chairwoman of the Blue Dog Caucus said today she will oppose the Senate version of healthcare reform if it comes up for a vote in the House. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), who also voted against the original House bill, tolld reporters in a conference call that she oppposes the upper chamber's legislation, and she would not support any changes that come from the Senate via reconciliation. "I will not vote for the Senate bill as is," she said, according to the Rapid City Journal. "I will not vote for a package of changes that would go through the...

tsunami wrote on 01/23/2010 09:46:10 AM: John Spratt is not just a foot soldier in Pelosi's Army, as Chairman of the House Budget Committee, he's a General. Everything that has come our way since Pelosi became the Speaker has been run through him. Health Care Reform, TARP, Cap and Trade, and the Stimulus package all received his approval. And what are the benefits to the State and his district as a result of his leadership? "SC jobless rate hits record 12.6 percent in Dec." - The Herald (1/22/2010) All of the counties in his district except two have unemployment rates...

The election is over and the result that no rational person could have predicted three weeks has happened. Republican Scott Brown is the new Senator from Massachusetts. Many conservatives will tell you that health care and the rest of the Obama agenda is now dead. Many Liberals will tell you that the election mean nothing outside of the Bay State. They are both right and they are both wrong. The election of Scott Brown has implications way beyond Massachusetts, its ripple effects will severely wound the Obama agenda, but progressiveness is alive and well and living in the White House,...

Republicans are trying to woo U.S. Rep. Chris Carney to switch parties, with Sen. John McCain among several GOP leaders making pitches to the Susquehanna County Democrat. Mr. McCain on Wednesday called Mr. Carney at his home in Dimock Twp. to ask whether he would consider joining the GOP, a Carney spokesman confirmed. The effort to persuade Mr. Carney was first reported by Politico, which quoted a GOP aide who said the party received "a nibble" from Mr. Carney. But Mr. Carney's spokesman, press secretary Joshua Drobnyk, rebutted that part of the report. Mr. Carney in a statement late Wednesday...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Freshman U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith, D-Ala., switched to the Republican party Tuesday and Democrats want their money back. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent more than $1 million last year to help Griffith eke out a 51 percent victory in a north Alabama district that went for John McCain by 61 percent. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the DCCC, said that Griffith "has a duty and responsibility to return to Democratic members and the DCCC the financial resources that were invested in him." Griffith, an oncologist, said the healthcare bill was the major...

What is this 1993 again? We've got a huge vote coming up on a healthcare overhaul, and now southern Democrats are deserting their party in favor of the GOP. Talk about a shift from last year. If someone told you in November 2008, that politicians would be jumping to the GOP, you'd have thought they were nuts. POLITICO: POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican. According to a senior GOP aide familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place in this afternoon in...

Usually one does not see Congressmen or Senators flipping parties to join the minority. However, Politico’s Josh Kraushaar has a scoop that Blue Dog Democrat Parker Griffith of Alabama, a freshman in Congress, has seen enough of Nancy Pelosi’s leadership. He will join Republicans in a move that has far more symbolic than substantive impact — for now: POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican. According to a senior GOP aide familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place in this afternoon in...

Too bad Barack Obama hasn't followed through on his promises of legislative transparency. Then we all could have watched Harry Reid live on C-SPAN handing an oversized Publishers Clearing House-style $100 million check to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson. The highest-profile Democratic hold-out on ObamaCare, Nelson said last week, "My vote is not for sale." He obviously meant that in the sense that he'd be righteously indignant at any suggestion that his vote could possibly be bought for anything less than the low nine digits. Nelson got the feds to pick up forevermore 100 percent of the added Medicaid spending that...

Kathryn, re your Facebook friend who asks, "Can we officially retire the phrases 'blue dog' democrats and 'pro life' democrats? Because there is no such thing:" As I wrote back in the summer, "Put not your trust in Blue Dog Democrats." It was folly to bet the Republic on the likes of Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln and other "moderates" who are, by definition, trimmers and accommodationists.

It’s hard to believe that just 11 short months ago, the Republican Party was all but declared a non-entity for the next 50 years in American politics. Now it seems by all poll indications, the Republicans are back and they may make the 1994 off-year elections look tame compared to what may be in store in 2010. The early scent of a future landslide defeat usually begins with the party’s own starting to withdraw as candidates. Early reports show Reps. Dennis Moore of Kansas, John Tanner and Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Brian Baird of Washington and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii...

“Have you heard Abercrombie is resigning?” veteran political consultant Nathan Wuertzel e-mailed me late Friday afternoon, just as the word came down that veteran Rep. Neil Abercrombie would resign from Congress to campaign full-term for the Democratic nomination for governor of Hawaii in 2010. Wuertzel had good reason to sound breathless. Just a month ago, he had brought me to lunch with City Councilman Charles Djou, the stronger-than-usual Republican candidate for Abercrombie’s Honolulu-based 1st District. Now Djou was thrust into a special election likely to be scheduled for early 2010 and sure to be watched by the national press. But...

Tennessee Democratic Rep. John Tanner will retire next November, creating an open seat in an area that strongly favors Republicans. Tanner's decision, according to those familiar with it, was made weeks ago and based on his desire to return to the Volunteer State after more than two decades in Washington. The decision was first reported by the Hotline. Tanner, first elected to the 8th district in 1988, has run without a serious challenge in recent years despite the fact that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won the seat with 56 percent in 2008. Tanner is the second House Democrat from a...

One of the last three uncommitted Democrats, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said Friday he would vote to begin debate on the Senate's health care bill; meanwhile, the Republican opposition opened a new front, arguing that the legislation would lead to health care rationing. Mr. Nelson said he would support the procedural vote scheduled for Saturday night because he didn't want to obstruct reform efforts. He also said he hoped to improve the legislation on the floor.

I just got off the phone with Sen. Bill Nelson's office. He still on the fence regarding the trillion dollar plus 2,074 page Harry Reid's healthcare bill. Please, please call one of his offices and let his staff know that our country cannot afford to add another trillion dollars to our already $1.6 trillion dollar budget deficit. Office telephone numbers: Washington 202-224-6551 Omaha 402-391-3411 Lincoln 402-441-4600

All RINOs are not the same, even when they profess almost identical beliefs. All politicians try to appeal to their constituents, but not all politicians - by a long shot - have the same type of constituents. RINOs who try to win election by stating policies as conservative as the voters will allow are not the problem with the Republican Party. Democrats, shrewdly, have grasped in the last two election cycles the art of the possible in winning congressional elections. Blue Dog Democrats are congressmen who, if Republicans held their districts, have voted completely against the House leadership's health care...

House Democrats passed the 2,032-page Pelosicare bill on a near party-line vote Saturday night 220-215 (roll call here). The only Republican voting in favor of the measure was New Orleans-based Joseph Cao who has long ago proven to be a tax and spend (and spend and spend) liberal. After a week of intense arm twisting, threats and promises from party leaders, more than half of the 52 so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats voted in favor of the over $1.3 trillion measure. These are the 28 Blue Dogs voting in favor of Pelosicare (who apparently fear the wrath of House Speaker...

Within minutes of Saturday’s historic House vote on health care reform, Republicans pronounced the political death of Rep. Thomas Perriello (D-Va.), pointing to the vulnerable freshman congressman’s vote in favor of the bill. And in the aftermath of the politically charged vote, Perriello wasn’t the only Democratic congressman whose fortunes were being reassessed. The GOP, which voted nearly in lock step against the measure, began crowing about the demise of various other vulnerable members and seized on the moment as a milestone in the path back to a House majority. Other than Perriello — who was the target of 12...

The Blue Dog Democrats have 53 members who are deamed to be considered Fiscal Conservatives, but the analysis of their three votes on the Stimulus, Cap and Trade, and Healthcare tell a different story for the vast majority. There are two members of the Black Caucus who are Blue Dogs: Rep Sanford Bishop (GS-02) and Rep David Scott (GA-13) both of who voted for all three bills. With so many people on here attacking Republicans for not doing more, decided to look into the numbers. Since the loss of a Republican seat on Tuesday to a Dem in NY-23, the...