Would the Blue Dogs consider voting with the Republicans, a Republican block, on a bill?
The 44 Blue Dogs could, in fact, even swing the majority in the House of Representatives.
Rep. MATHESON: Oh, I think there's no question that Blue Dogs will reach out across the aisle.
Democrats outnumber Republicans 36-23 on the Energy and Commerce committee, which contains eight Blue Dogs, including Ross.
The fifty-one Conservative House Democrats known as the Blue Dogs forced a reduction in the over-all amount of spending.
"Three dozen blue dogs have voted against her on various issues, " Snow said, using a nickname for conservative Democrats.
Representative JIM MATHESON (Democrat, Utah): The Blue Dogs are a group of conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives.
And I think Blue Dogs can be characterized around three main issue areas.
Second is Blue Dogs have always been an advocate for strong national defense.
Meanwhile, health care corporations and professional organizations have actively engaged the Blue Dogs.
If you look at issues like the wall, all but two of the blue dogs voted for the wall.
As of 2010, there were as many as 54 Blue Dogs, but the midterms knocked their caucus down to 26.
When the vote came down to the wire, the blue dogs weren't able to muster the opposition they had promised.
Ross got together with health care industry donors in June, around the same time the Blue Dogs were challenging the House bill.
Of the 21 Blue Dogs elected since 2006, five remain in office.
He points out a lot of the new Democrats in Congress are more conservative, so-called blue dogs, and actually campaigned against illegal immigration.
Blue Dogs also say the bill fails to fix the inequities in the current system for health care costs for rural doctors and hospitals.
Rep. Mike Ross, D-Arkansas, and a key leader of the conservative Democratic group known as the Blue Dogs, told reporters he shares Elmendorf's concerns.
CNN: Democrat: Obama slowing down progress on health care reform
And the third area is that Blue Dogs believe in strong pro-economic growth policies, because we believe a growing economy really benefits everyone in this country.
The deal announced by the Blue Dogs the next day acknowledged this concern by raising the threshold below which firms would be exempted from the mandate.
The newly elected Democrats in the House will be full of conservative southern "Blue Dogs, " and they're not likely to give Pelosi a blank check for anything.
And one of the things that we so-called Blue Dogs in the House have been adamant about in this year's budget negotiations is that we continue that trend.
The Blue Dogs were the group in the Democratic side of the aisle that really pushed for the welfare-reform package that ultimately was signed into law in 1996.
Waxman and the Blue Dogs agreed last week on creating an independent panel of health-care experts to review the Medicare reimbursement system with an eye toward cutting costs.
CNN: House health-care negotiations end night without a deal
How do you see Blue Dogs, moderate to conservative, pro-defense, pro-fiscal conservatism, these Democrats - how do you see yourselves being led by a Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco?
But having said that, I think the Blue Dogs, the conservative Democrats, really pushed this thing along with the folks in the Senate - John Warner in the Senate.
During the 2010 midterm elections, for instance, roughly half of the 50 Blue Dogs, a group of moderate Democrats who largely hail from conservative leaning Southern and Midwestern districts, were voted out of office.
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