"...There are no more Blue Dogs, they're called Republicans."

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. Doesn't the percentage depend upon who is counting?

As an example, Indiana's Rep Joe Donnelly (D-and now Senate candidate)
"voted with the Democratic Party 71 (%) of the time" according to the website Open Congress.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Joe_Donnelly

In contrast, "The Washington Post, concludes that
he votes 88.5% of the time with the majority of rank-and-file Democrats in the House of Representatives."
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Joe_Donnelly

Aside from what we are told that we are supposed to approve regardless of what the public at large believes,
according to Gallup polls:
"61% of Americans disapprove of TARP;"
"56% of Americans disapproved of the auto bailout;"
"57% of U.S. voters believe that the stimulus has either hurt the economy (36%) or had no impact (21%)."

Donnelly voted for all three.

For us, depending upon you believe that TARP, etc., benefited us, you may conclude that either makes him a good reliable Democrat or not.

For his big-money donors (and most of his money comes from big-money donors), the major issues are whether he can be counted on to support more tax-breaks for the rich, more free-trade agreements, and a continuation of endless wars. If they can't get enough people to vote for a Republican to replace Senator Lugar (R, often called a "moderate&quot , they will settle for Donnelly.

No one should rely upon Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR). Republicans have been known to be wrong before. And they have been known to lie.