This one will be short but sweet.
As Kagro X noted today, the Democratic House's attempt to provide for even the slow withdrawal of troops from Iraq, via the "hard benchmark" plan, is currently being stymied by Blue Dog Democrats, for whom even this very moderate alteration to current strategy is apparently too much.
Below I've listed all 43 members of the Blue Dog coalition. Having spent my entire life in red states, I'm well aware that sometimes you have to take what you can get, but not every one of the Blue Dogs hails from a district that would seem to merit such an equivocating posture. Thus, working on the hypothesis that the 2004 presidential election vote was a pretty good inidicator of the partisanship of congressional districts, I've listed these representatves in descending order based on Kerry's margin vis-a-vis Bush (the % figure is Kerry's % of the district vote minus Bush's).
- David Scott GA(13) +28%
-
Adam Schiff CA(29) +24%
(hat tip to bumblebums - see commentary in thread)
- Jane Harman CA(36) +19%
- Joe Baca CA(43) +17%
-
Mike Thompson CA(1) +12%
(hat tip to jj32)
- John Barrow GA(12) +8%
- Steve Israel NY(2) +8%
- Mike Michaud ME(2) +6%
- Jim Cooper TN(5) +4%
-
Patrick Murphy PA(8) +3%
(hat tip to skymutt and Adam B)
- Jim Costa CA(20) +3%
- Leonard Boswell IA(3) =
- Dennis Cardoza CA(18) -1%
- Loretta Sanchez CA(47) -1%
- Charlie Wilson OH(6) -2%
- Mike Ross AR(4) -3%
- Marion Berry AR(1) -5%
- Mike Arcuri NY(24) -6%
- John Tanner TN(8) -6%
- Sanford Bishop GA(2) -8%
-
Kirsten Gillibrand NY(20) -8%
(also courtesy of bumblebums)
- Allen Boyd FL(2) -8%
- Tim Mahoney FL(16) -8%
- Dennis Moore KS(3) -11%
- Jim Marshall GA(3) -11%
- John Salazar CO(3) -11%
- Collin Peterson MN(7) -11%
- Melissa Bean IL(8) -12%
- Mike McIntyre NC(7) -12%
- Joe Donnelly IN(2) -13%
- Heath Schuler NC(11) -14%
- Tim Holden PA(17) -16%
- Lincoln Davis TN(4) -17%
- Charlie Melancon LA(3) -17%
- Ben Chandler KY(6) -17%
- Dan Boren OK(2) -18%
- Baron Hill IN(9) -19%
- Bud Cramer AL(5) -21%
- Stephanie Herseth SD(at large) -22%
- Brad Ellsworth IN(8) -24%
- Earl Pomeroy ND(at large) -28%
- Jim Matheson UT(2) -35%
- Gene Taylor MS(4) -37%
UPDATE: I am not suggesting that every single one of these representatives be primaried. If this were how I felt, I would have just listed the Blue Dogs and not even bothered with the district percentages. My point is that we should strongly consider supporting primaries against Blue Dogs from blue districts unless they indicate that they do not agree with the Blue Dogs on this issue.
UPDATE II: Some Kossacks have provided helpful info on Blue Dogs who support the benchmark legislation under question, and I have crossed out their names accordingly. Any other such info is well appreciated.
Sources:
Blue Dog Coalition website
Almanac of American Politics (firewalled, but accessible through university proxy servers)