By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The Democratic Blue Dog Coalition is a group of currently 54 conservative Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives, first formed in 1995. The Blue Dog Coalition describes itself as a group of moderate-to-conservative Democrats committed to financial and national security, favoring compromise and bipartisanship over ideology and party discipline. In 2006, Blue Dog candidates such as Jason Altmire, Heath Shuler, and Brad Ellsworth were elected in conservative-leaning districts, ending years of Republican dominance in these areas. The group is the rough equivalent of the Republican Main Street Partnership. - Source: Wikipedia
Congressional moderates are down in numbers after Tuesday's elections, but they're not quite out, despite the highly charged partisanship that has engulfed Capitol Hill in recent years.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. are opposing a Senate Republican effort that would prohibit the United States from prosecuting terrorism suspects in federal court.
For the first time during 110th Congress, the Blue Dog Coalition — a 47-member grouping of self-described moderate and conservative Democrats — defied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership on a critical national security issue: Saturday night's vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), where 41 dissident Democrats, nearly all of them Blue Dogs, provided the margin of victory for President Bush on the issue of terrorist surveillance. Thanks to the Blue Dogs, the administration's commonsense proposal to clarify that FISA permits U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor telephone calls made by foreign terrorist suspects outside the United States without first obtaining a warrant was approved by a 227-183 margin.
