COLUMBUS (TDB) -- So who are the Blue Dogs in Ohio? Zack Space and Charlie Wilson are rather conservative rural Democrats when compared to their urban counterparts. And Steve Driehaus, the Cincinnati-area state representative who hopes to knock off Republican stalwart Steve Chabot in OH-01, is pro-life. Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon that the Democratic party's progressive base gets the back of the hand from the Blue Dogs. He says they should be driven away from power in Congress:"On key issue after key issue, it is the Bush White House and Republican causes that have received virtually everything they wanted from Congress, while the base of the Democratic Party has received virtually nothing other than disappointment and an overt repudiation of its agenda . . .
"At the moment, the Blue Dog contingent is dominant in the Democratic caucus and drives much of what the caucus does. The more Blue Dogs there are in the Democratic caucus, the more dominant they will be. Changing the face of Congress requires, first and foremost, that the face of the Democratic caucus change, that its strategic incentive scheme be altered. Until progressives make Democratic leaders pay a price for their allegiance to the right's agenda -- the only price that politicians recognize: having their power diminished and jeopardized -- then none of this will change. It will only continue to worsen."
