Tuesday, April 19, 2005

It's A Thundering Herd Of DINOs

"Bipartisanship is another name for date rape"

-Grover Norquist, GOP strategist and head of Americans for Tax Reform

There's no doubt about it that now is not an easy time to be a Democrat. We have the executive, legislative and, effectively, the judicial branches of government controlled by conservatives and the country taking a hard turn toward being controlled by the Religious Right.


But, as we have seen for 20 years now, the Republican party does not respect compromise. Indeed, whether they will publicly admit it or not, they see such bipartisan behavior by Democrats as a profound weakness to be exploited.


So when Howard Dean ran for Democratic National Committee Chairman, he made it clear that we were going to operate from a position of Democratic unity and strong belief in our party's central tenets. He further vowed that the time for patience with Democrats who vote like Republicans has reached an end.


For your consideration and future reference, I'm going to list our current crop of DINOs (Democrat in Name Only). These Democratic congressional representatives are on the DINO list because they voted with President Bush and the Right Wing on either the recently-passed bankruptcy reform bill or that unfortunate piece of legislation and the bill abolish an estate tax on the wealthiest families in the country
-- these are the Yellow Dog Blog Super DINOs. (The estate tax cut will add $1 trillion in debt in the next decade, at a time when the Republicans claim that there isn’t enough money for Social Security.)

One bill will allow credit card companies to financially ruin a family that has been hit with catastrophic medical bills while the other gives yet another tax break to the richest people in the country, while deepening the federal deficit. We expect this from Republicans but not from Democrats and it's time to make a list and check it twice.


Here are the DINOs who voted for the bankruptcy reform bill (sorted by home state):

  • Artur Davis AL
  • Ed Pastor AZ
  • Jane Harman CA
  • Joe Baca CA
  • Ellen O. Tauscher CA
  • Mike Thompson CA
  • Kendrick B. Meek FL
  • Jim Davis FL
  • Allen Boyd FL
  • Ed Case HI
  • Dennis Moore KS
  • Steny H. Hoyer MD
  • Michael H. Michaud ME
  • Emanuel Cleaver MO
  • Gene Taylor MS
  • Bob Etheridge NC
  • David E. Price NC
  • Earl Pomeroy ND
  • Robert Menendez NJ
  • Robert E. Andrews NJ
  • Steven R. Rothman NJ
  • Gregory W. Meeks NY
  • Brian Higgins NY
  • Joseph Crowley NY
  • Ted Strickland OH
  • David Wu OR
  • John P. Murtha PA
  • Allyson Y. Schwartz PA
  • Tim Holden PA
  • John M. Spratt Jr. SC
  • Stephanie Herseth SD
  • John S. Tanner TN
  • Jim Cooper TN
  • Harold E. Ford Jr. TN
  • Al Green TX
  • Silvestre Reyes TX
  • Charles A. Gonzalez TX
  • Solomon P. Ortiz TX
  • James P. Moran VA
  • Brian Baird WA
  • Ron Kind WI
  • Alan B. Mollohan WV
And here's the Super DINOs, who voted for that bill and for Bush's estate-tax legislation:
  • Melissa L. Bean IL
  • Robert Marion Berry AR
  • Sanford D. Bishop Jr. GA
  • Dan Boren OK
  • Leonard L. Boswell IA
  • Rick Boucher VA
  • Dennis A. Cardoza CA
  • Ben Chandler KY
  • Jim Costa CA
  • Robert E. (Bud) Cramer Jr. AL
  • Henry Cuellar TX
  • Lincoln Davis TN
  • Chet Edwards TX
  • Bart Gordon TN
  • Rubén Hinojosa TX
  • Darlene Hooley OR
  • Steve Israel NY
  • William J. Jefferson LA
  • Rick Larsen WA
  • Jim Matheson UT
  • Carolyn McCarthy NY
  • Mike McIntyre NC
  • Charlie Melancon LA
  • Collin C. Peterson MN
  • Nick J. Rahall II WV
  • Mike Ross AR
  • C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger MD
  • John T. Salazar CO
  • David Scott GA
  • Ike Skelton MO
  • Albert Russell Wynn MD
Let's keep an eye on these people. Believe me, George W. Bush and Karl Rove know with a fair degree of certainty that they can probably count on these DINOs to sell out on Social Security legislation as well.

The entire House of Representatives runs for re-election next year. It may be time to start shopping around for some real Democrats to replace these fakers.