“Blue on Blue” Fighting

Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) on an internet radio show talking about the behind the scenes in-fighting going on in the House Democratic Caucus.

Cooper was one of the 11 House Democrats to vote against that chamber's version of the 'stimulus' plan last week.

In the meantime, the Blue Dog Democrat Coalition in the House has begun circulating a letter to have 'regular order' restored in the chamber for the future legislation.  This means things actually going through the Committee process with public hearings and all the typical stuff which nothing passed so far this session has gone through.

55 Democratic members are signatories to this letter; the list of who has signed on hasn't been made public yet.  The only know members are Cooper, most if not all the Blue Dog Democrats - which means Wisconsin's Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) - and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.  If Hoyer's on board, it means he's being pushed out by Her Majesty, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in the legislative process.

As my associate Moe Lane points out, 178 (# of GOP House Members) + 55 (Letter signers) > 218 (Minimum needed have a majority in the House).

Not that it's ever going to happen that way.