Beginning of a third party?

The Blue Dog Democrats captured a lot of attention along with those seats in the House and Senate in last month’s elections. They tend to be conservative — certainly more so than the party leadership — and most are pro-life. We heard a lot about them in the immediate post-election period, and what a stroke of genius it supposedly was for certain party heads to have run this group of attractive candidates, focus most of the attention on them and their principles, and keep the liberals quietly out of sight.

Prevailing thought lately though seems to be that once the new Congress convenes in January, their voices won’t be heard much by the very liberal leadership of both houses. But wait, what’s this?

Now that the results of the midterm election have demonstrated the strength of moderate to conservative Democrats in swing districts, the clout of the independently minded Blue Dog Coalition is on the rise, say political observers, and its bite could match its bark.

“They can cause fits for the majority leadership,” said Brookings Institution scholar Ron Haskins. Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi “is going to have a lot of trouble holding that coalition together.”

Oh, really?

Haskins, a former Republican staff director for the House Ways and Means Committee subcommittee on human resources and former senior adviser for welfare policy for President Bush, said the Blue Dogs have the potential to derail Democratic plans that don’t stand on solid bipartisan ground.

Democrats “can’t hold their majority without them,” he said.

So are we beginning to see enough of a breakaway coalition of principled legislators who don’t fit the whole profile of either party….to represent a third choice?

And speaking of choice, watch these Blue Dogs closely when their party leadership goes after issues of life. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised (threatened?) that in their “first 100 hours” of business, Congress will revive the effort to get federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

This time, let’s be more aware of what the talk means, and who’s ‘walking’ it.