Bob Novak at 'Human Events' identifies a pattern that should've been self evident to anyone who voted for a moderate to conservative Democrat in the last 2 years thinking that they would have a conservative voting record. Instead they are voting exactly the way Madame Mimi Pelosi tells them to vote.
HUMAN EVENTS Exclusive: Blue Dog Blues - HUMAN EVENTS

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Conservatives rationalized on May 13 when Republicans lost their third consecutive special Congressional election, in the supposedly safe 1st District of Mississippi. After all, they said, the victorious Democratic candidate Travis Childers, sounded more conservative during the campaign than his losing Republican candidate. He was a county official, a good old boy who the voters figured would be an independent conservative vote in the House as one of the Blue Dog Democrats.

But once in Washington, he drank the Democratic leadership’s Kool Aid. In the first 13 House roll calls contested along partisan lines after Childers took his seat in Congress, he voted with the Democrats 12 times.

Childers fit right in with the Blue Dogs elected in 2006 to give Democrats control of the House after a dozen years of a Republican majority. They won office by campaigning as independent conservatives. But in the House starting in January 2007, they have voted the Democratic line -- with no exceptions -- more than 80 percent of the time.

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Hopefully Republicans hoping to stem a tidal wave of Democrat victories in Congressional contests this fall will pay special attention and efforts to win these seats back.

Unfortunately the Republican caucus appears rudderless without solid leadership so I doubt they will grab this opportunity handed to them on a silver platter .

Just follow his voting record and publish it; how hard is that? Childers and the rest will be campaigning again this Fall. The conservative GOP needs to develop its message right now and get to work. There will not likely be any 'coattails' from McCain's race, which points out the most disappointing aspect of the Bush presidency: the loss of his own party. Like father, like son.

McCain is not the perfect conservative. He frustrates the hell out of me on a number of issues. But he is very consevative on some of the most important issues like the growth of government entitlement and pork/earmark programs. He has never supported an income tax hike; wants to make the tax cuts permanent ;reduce corporate rates , and has proposed free-market reforms to health care He is dedicated to a strong defense and committed to victory against jihadistan.
These are undeniable facts about him .

I do not think he is as committed to a originalist judiciary as I would prefer ;and of course the things he is wrong about like campaign finance reform ,border security ,and "solutions" to "global climate change " make his less than ideal . He also takes great delight in thumbing his nose at his natural base . He is too much into this " maverick"personna.

Still there are enough coat-tails there for a congressperson to hang onto I think. The Republican party may have stumbled onto the right candidate for this election cycle because he can both stay true to his beliefs and at the same time distance himself from the weaknesses of the Bush administation. This Democrat attempt to caractiture him as Bush the 3rd or McSame doesn't resonate because he has so often been in opposition to the administration and the party.

Why am I not surprised? Sen. Tom Coburn has been making calls for Republicans to start acting like Republicans, so perhaps we do have a potential leader in the fold. This morning, when asked what the mood was in the southern US I heard someone say the people were just looking for a conservative. So am I...

Hello you poor poor souls:

Rudderless and leaderless... Jeez, maybe if you hadn't attached your dreams to the loser in chief, you'd HAVE coattails... But, you ain't even got them...

You really had a chance to imprint some conservative philosophy on this country. The country was ready for it. But, you gave us the dufus in chief. What did you expect?

excon

But of course this wasn't about the Presidency but Congress. Of course the real difference is that the people hold the Republican party responsible for irresponsible governance . They applaud the Democrats for doing the same thing.

Hello again, tom:

Nahhhh. They don't at all. That's why you guys won the presidency and BOTH houses of congress.

You say it's about congress. I say it's about leadership. That leadership should have come from the White House. At the very least it should have come from the Tom Delays and that southern gentleman senator (whose name I have forgotten). But it didn't.

They ALL drank the Kool Aid instead. I'm not saying the incoming tide of Democrats will be any different. All I'm saying, is that there WILL be an incoming tide.

excon