Friday, November 17, 2006

Time to Lead . . . is Now

Newly elected moderates created the majority caucus that unanimously elected Nancy Pelosi yesterday, but she seemingly overlooked this as she embraced Rep. Murtha and looked past Steny Hoyer.

The caucus does not work (and the Dems will fail) if the new Speaker doesn't align her interests with a moderate agenda and work effectively with Hoyer.

The issues that should drive the Congressional agenda are:

  • Iraq - and a responsible path to troop reduction and disengagement
  • Job creation - particularly for the hard hit Rust Belt states (the same states that can deliver the 2008 Presidency to the Democrats)

I will leave the tactics for expeditious disengagement to the generals.

As to the needs of the Rust Belt, the Speaker needs to seek out the Governors and address their needs. It's good policy and good politics.

Make Governors Rendell, Strickland and Blagojevich successful.

It might be wise to do the same in Indiana - Gov. Daniels may be a Republican but the Blue Dogs are hunting in Indiana as well.

Welcome to BlueDogNight - Democrats in the Real World

A first post is a daunting challenge.

Make a good impression on the reader - good balance of substance and style. Create rapport and begin a relationship. It's alot like dating - but the sway of ideas replaces the primal urges that create face-to-face personal chemistry.

BlueDogNight is created to share ideas from a life-long political junkie. I have been active in NY, Ohio and national electoral politics; sometimes engaged in policy and adminstrative settings. I have witnessed and worked with some of the most effective leaders in US politics; I also have had experiences with the mediocre and the clueless. Most unfortunately, I have also witnessed the venal.

Through all of those years of involvement (from 1966 and the unsuccessful campaign for Ohio governor of a Frazier Reams, Jr., who lost to Jim Rhodes by nearly 30 percentage points), I have believed in the primacy of the center in American politics.

I am a centrist; a Blue Dog.

Sometimes, I lose my way to the center; the same can be said of the American voter.

I did so in 1972 as I followed the good Senator from South Dakota, George McGovern, as he led Democrats to ruinous defeat and a realignment of the Democratic Party that ended its coalition of the center. Campaign '72 was a lesson in how to lose all in politics except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. I learned my lesson well.

The American voters lost their way as they began a right-of-center shift in 1980, peaking in 1994, and continuing through November 2006.

With the results of Election Day 2006, the promise of the center re-emerges.

I am a centrist; a Blue Dog.

BlueDogNight is committed to celebrating and analyzing the center of the political spectrum and the extremes that balance and pull that center.