Democrats Hope to Spend Now to Save (Their Seats) Later

A story from me about the logjam of spending Congress will spend the next three weeks chewing through. The spending issue is becoming increasingly sensitive, especially since three Blue Dogs — fiscal conservative Dems who usually come from swing districts — have now announced their retirement. CW states that Dems weren’t likely to lose the House next year because they’ve had so few retirements. As it stands Republicans are challenging 70 Dem seats but Dems have only found candidates to challenge 20 GOP seats — partly a symptom of having picked off 50 swing seats in the last two cycles, there ain’t many moderate GOPers left. The Blue Dog retirements are worrying because a) as fiscal conservatives they’re having a hard time defending the Democrats’ spending and if they can’t explain it much of the 50 frontline freshmen and sophomores likely can’t either, and b) if many more of them retire the Democrats risk losing the House.