Politics D7

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Politics The Town Voice Balanced

Blue Dog Democrats, Amusing and Amused

Hey this is almost poetic!

By Arlon Staywell
RICHMOND — Do you know what a "Blue Dog Democrat" is? You can find it quickly with a search engine. But there is so much more to it. You could bounce around the internet for hours trying to put all the pieces together. To save some of that effort, note here that a "Yellow Dog Democrat" was a term from Civil War times for a democrat who would "rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican." And a "Blue Dog Democrat" is someone "choked" blue by far more liberal Democrats and their taxing. But you can learn quite much more from Wikipedia and other resources on that.
And every graduate of grade school should know that Republicans use an elephant as an emblem for their party and Democrats use something that appears like a donkey. But other emblems come and go.
During the conflict in Vietnam there were "hawks" and "doves" depending on how peaceful or warlike politicians were perceived.
But wait, there's more
Prolific and erudite author, William F. Buckley Jr., who founded the conservative political news magazine National Review, was a polemical virtuoso on the PBS program Firing Line, and who later in life was for some time a proponent of medical marijuana, to the great disappointment of most his admirers; is yet a hero to those quite few Pink Elephant Republicans who still believe medical marijuana should be considered seriously as a pain reliever.
Still fewer of those are reaching across the aisle to people like Barney Frank and the Persimmon Flamingo Democrats for help with their cause. Most Pink Elephant Republicans do not, and of course all other Republican absolutely do not either.
Nancy Pelosi might be the unwitting beneficiary of a struggle between Hillary Clinton's entrenched Motley Kangaroo Democrats and the new wave of Chartreuse Camel Democrats who support Obama. When the bite, kick and scratch is over Pelosi might take the lead of the Turquoise Giant Panda Democrats and their friends in the progressive movement.
Expect a play by play from Joe Biden's Apricot Gazelle Democrats. Clinton might not be the first women president after all, Mrs. Pelosi.
Encouraged by whatever success her new book has the Baby Blue Gerbil Republicans will be trying to convince Sarah Palin to be the first women president and to avoid getting any help from the Raspberry Badger Republicans who were somewhat helpful in securing the presidential nomination for John McCain last round.
But the nomination in the next round is too far off to even hazard a guess. Mark Sanford admits the numbers are significantly dwindling for the Burnt Orange Louse Republicans, but don't count out the Chestnut Quail Republican's number one choice, Bobby Jindal. And after the substantial progress made by the Cerulean Alligator Republicans, a very mixed group, in winning the governorship of Virginia for Bob McDonnell, expect them to push him, perhaps against his better judgement, to even higher office.
If McDonnell does that, and who? knows whether he will, it will at least save me the trouble of trying to keep the debate against a possibly unstoppable Obama interesting. The "Doves" kicked me out of their club because I have too many socially conservative views. They suggested I join the Olive Drab Swan Republicans. I was thinking maybe the Iridescent Swan Republicans might have a better chance in times like these.
When Republicans swept all the statewide offices in the election last Tuesday the Democrats response was that they were amused. But that was perhaps not so much as they were amusing.

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