Conservative Dems may be key for party

Chairmanships, control of House are within reach

Blue Dogs are conservative Democrats that do not support abortion or gay marriages. A blue dog is the mascot because when dogs are not let into the house, they stay outside in the cold and turn blue. In order for the Democrats to win in 2006, Democrats are turning to Blue Dogs for help. Blue Dogs are anxiously to help but have a price — Democrats must stop supporting abortions and gay marriages to win elections.

I am Catholic and I am opposed to abortions and gay marriage; however, I do not support laws mandating change in existing law. I suggest we use only persuasion to decrease the number of abortions and we support gay unions giving the same access to services and benefits as received by those who are married.

I was born and grew up hunting with guns in the small rural copper mining town of Superior, Arizona. I love guns but I believe no one needs to own a automatic weapon. I am pro union having been a member of the AFL-CIO as a copper miner. I am also pro business having owned a manufacturing company.

I was a Republican all my life but enough is enough.

I am a US Army Viet Nam era veteran. I wrote an editorial against the war in Iraq before we invaded Iraq. I think we should bring all Americans home today. I am sick of hearing Bush say we will stand down when Iraq can stand on its own. My question has always been who trained the insurgents? Every time we turn over an area to the Iraq soldiers, the insurgents kick their butts and then we have to go back and take over the area once again.

Of equal importance, I am a 4th generation American Hispanic and I am sick of all the Hispanic bashing being done by the Republicans especially Kyl, Hayworth, Pearce and McCain is just an opportunist. I am now a new Democrat but a "Blue Dog Democrat."

There is only one organization for Blue Dogs and that is for members of Congress.

Therefore, today I begin a national organization of Blue Dogs to prepare for the 2008 election. I now own the name: www.BlueDogs.us which will become our national website.

WASHINGTON (By Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times) October 29, 2006 — He is pro-business and anti-abortion. He is an evangelical Christian and an avid hunter. But, unexpectedly, Heath Shuler is a Democrat and he is running for Congress in North Carolina.

Shuler is part of a phalanx of unusually conservative Democratic candidates who may deliver crucial victories over GOP incumbents and help their party win control of the House.

Republicans are ringing alarms about what the House would be like if the GOP lost control: a throwback to unreconstructed liberalism, big-government activism, tax increases and weak-kneed defense. They point with Halloween horror to the likely line-up of Democratic committee chairmen, including Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and other liberal old-timers.

But, like Shuler, many of the Democratic candidates most likely to be elected are cut from a different cloth. Sixteen of them have been endorsed by the Blue Dogs, a coalition of conservative Democrats. Several of them used to be Republicans. Shuler was recruited to run as a Republican a few years ago but opted not to.

With so many conservative-leaning candidates at the forefront of the Democratic effort, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has, at least for now, stuck to a minimalist agenda that steers clear of grand, liberal ambitions.

Instead, Democratic leaders are focusing - and almost all serious Democratic candidates are campaigning on - a limited agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, repealing tax breaks for oil companies, restoring college-tuition tax breaks, cutting Medicare drug costs and other plans they believe could draw bipartisan support.

The limited agenda has won endorsements from Democrats as conservative as candidate Ken Lucas of Kentucky - a former House member who, before he left Congress in 2004, voted against Pelosi in the traditional party-line vote for House speaker.

Republicans charge that the apparent moderation in Democratic candidates is a smokescreen meant to obscure their support for a party steered by liberals and for initiatives such as tax hikes.

"They claim to be pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tax, yet their first vote in Congress would be to elect the most liberal speaker in American history," said Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which aims to enlarge the GOP majority in the House. "In the first hundred hours they will roll back tax cuts and open investigations into the administration."

An influx of new blood from the Democrats' right wing could test party leaders' ability to maintain the remarkable unity they have forged during their years in the minority.

Among the party's House challengers, 33 are conservative enough to be endorsed by either the Blue Dogs or the political arm of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Nearly all are on the Cook Political Report's latest list of Democrats most likely to win seats now held by Republicans. The party needs to pick up 15 seats to win a majority in the House.

If they won a majority in the House, Democrats would be severely limited in what they could accomplish legislatively without control of the Senate and with Bush still in office.

Still, even a slim majority would give committee chairmen power to conduct investigations and issue subpoenas - tools they want to use to scrutinize Bush's policy on Iraq and other issues they believe the GOP overlooked.

In line to assume those powers is a cadre of unapologetic liberals of an older generation. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., first elected to the House in 1955, is poised to return to the Energy and Commerce chairmanship he held before Republicans won the House in 1994. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., would return as Appropriations chairman.

In addition, minority members would rise in a Democratic House. Black legislators are in line to become chairmen of the committees on taxation (Charles Rangel of New York), the judiciary (John Conyers of Michigan) and intelligence (Alcee Hastings of Florida).

Republicans are spotlighting that lineup and portraying it as extremist. They jumped on Conyers for calling for impeachment hearings against Bush, an idea Pelosi flatly dismisses. Republicans point out that Hastings, before becoming a House member, was impeached as a federal judge.