In the 1800's, voters in the South who only voted for Democrats were called Yellow Dog Democrats. They hated the Republicans because the Republican president, Abraham Lincoln and his Union troops, won the Civil War and these Southerners would rather vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for a Republican. Hence, the term Yellow Dog Democrats.
For the past couple of decades, a new term came up to describe certain Democrats who, in general, were fiscal conservatives. And that term is "Blue Dog Democrats," a term which came from "Yellow Dog Democrats." They were previously known in the Congress as the "Boll Weevils." They were among President Ronald Reagan's best friends as he passed his historic tax cuts, budget-cutting programs, and defense build-up which won the Cold War.
There are 52 "Blue Dog" Democrats in the United States House of Representatives. About 40 of them are from congressional districts which were won by President George W. Bush twice and by Senator John McCain last year. Even so, the Blue Dog Democrats for the past several months have marched lock-step with their left-wing Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and their equally liberal president. However, cracks are beginning to show in the Obama/Pelosi united front in Congress.
The Republicans' "Welfare Reform Restoration Act"
May 5, 2009 - 10:28am — Jim BacklinThe Republicans in the House of Representatives' Republican Study Committee have introduced a bill to restore some of the great principles that were in the welfare reform bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress during the 1990's and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, but which has been in the process of being gutted by the last two Democrat-controlled Congresses. It is called the "Welfare Reform Restoration Act", H.R. 1277.