Members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are conservatives and yet officially call themselves members of the Democratic Party are known as "Blue Dog Democrats." This is a pun on "Yellow Dog Democrats," a term from Texas: A man is so loyal to the Democratic Party, he'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the party line. Pete Geren, a Texas Democrat so conservative George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of the Army (probably to get him in a nearly-useless position and to get a Republican to win his seat in the ensuing special election), came up with the name "Blue Dogs" because conservative Democrats had been "choked blue by the liberals." Although a lot of Blue Dogs are Southerners, they are not necessarily to be confused with old-time segregationists, "Dixiecrats" or "Boll Weevil Democrats." There were 54 Blue Dogs going into this Tuesday's election. There are now 26, as 28 of them either retired or were defeated. Or, to put it another way, of the 51 incumbent Democrats who lost on Tuesday, 18 were Blue Dogs. (Note that there remain races whose results are unconfirmed as of November 5, 2010, so the above numbers could change.) Moral of the story? Americans don't want conservatism, they want Democrats to act like Democrats and fix the economy and pass a MORE radical health care reform than the one these cowards -- not the President -- shoved down our throats!

I mean, seriously, as long as these guys were around, the Democrats didn't really have the majority in the House. For the record, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin ("D" - South Dakota) is reasonably attractive. In this case, she's not a "dog," just a "Blue Dog." But she is a gun nut, and by voting against health care reform, she shot herself in the foot. Oh, the metaphorical irony.