Blue Dogs get more bark, more bite

The Blue Dogs’ clubhouse is getting a little bigger.

Leaders of the centrist Democratic coalition have expanded their membership to 56 members, balancing the group’s desire for influence in the caucus against the need to remain exclusive.

Under the 20 percent cap that was in place during the 110th Congress, they would have allowed only 51 members. That number was reached last week, causing many, including the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), to speculate that they’d reached their limit.

But leaders say that at least four new members are under active consideration, and there’s actually room for five.

“We weren’t comfortable keeping it at 20 percent,” said Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), Blue Dog co-chair woman for administration. “We wanted to accommodate that growth. We feel it gives us room to grow.”

The upward pressure is in part a result of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s success in recruiting conservative Democrats to run in Republican districts, and then helping them win. Now many of those conservative members are starting to feel heartburn over the big spending plans of their more liberal leaders. But President Obama has committed to the Blue Dogs that he will enforce fiscal responsibility and address entitlement reform.

But some members say they feel their fellow centrists in the New Democrat Coalition have suffered a lack of identity because they admitted too many members. They also note that it takes a two-thirds vote of the Blue Dogs for the coalition to endorse a specific position, and that was difficult even when there were fewer than 50 members.

Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.) said there are four members under consideration, while Herseth Sandlin put the figure at three to five.

They wouldn’t give any clue about who those members are.

Having four current members under consideration, though, would allow Blue Dogs to admit the successor to Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a Blue Dog who left for the Senate, and still keep the number to 56.

They won’t give out the names because the annual announcement of who has joined the caucus has been made awkward by speculation about who didn’t make the cut.

After the 2006 election, some leaders bragged that there were many new members who wanted to get in, but didn’t. Then word leaked that Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) hadn’t gotten in after his first attempt. Republicans scored a local news hit when The Arizona Republic quoted NRCC spokesman Ken Spain as saying he’d been “officially relegated him to the liberal Pelosi wing of the Democratic Party.” Mitchell joined a few months later.

The NRCC tried that again last week, after the Blue Dogs mentioned that they’d admitted freshman Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) and second-term Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.).

The NRCC pounced, sending out a release chiding 18 new centrist members for not making the cut. The problem was that, according to Blue Dog leaders, none of the 18 had even applied…

… Spain was unapologetic, saying the Blue Dogs’ defense is a larger indictment of the Democrats’ free-spending ways.

“If these self-proclaimed ‘fiscally responsible’ Democrats aren’t interested in being part of the Blue Dog Coalition because they’re not interested in keeping their campaign promises of restoring ‘fiscal responsibility’ to Congress, then that is an even greater indictment of them,” Spain said.