Could somebody please explain the difference b/t Blue and Yellow dog Dems?

[JohnnyCougar]

And are there any other colored dogs?

[benddem]

1. I'd vote for a yellow dog

before I'd vote for a republican. Hence a dem to the core. The blue dogs are the conservative wing of the democratic party. I don't know when this got started, but these are the guys who vote lots of time with the repugs.

[tsuki]

2. Yellow dog is a Southern term. I do know that. Blue dog, don't

know.

[LookManLook]

3. Er....

Wouldn't that be you would vote for a Republican before you would vote for a blue dog Democrat? Like you reject them so much you would go to the other side?

[billbuckhead]

7. Their necks turn blue cause liberals are strangling their air supply

says the Zell Miller crowd. I think their necks really turn blue cause of straining to join the corporate side as strong as their Republican brethern but being constrained to being on the "people's" party side.

Yellow dog Dems are the people who Zell Miller took advantage of. These are old time Democrats who never trusted or liked Republicans no matter what and famously say they'd rather vote for a common yellow dog than any Republican.

[HillDem]

4. Not always

They are opposed to the latest round of tax cuts, and also the budget cuts.

[havocmom]

6. Blue Dog Dems were a fiscally conservative group

http://www.c-span.org/questions/weekly55.htm

In the 106th Congress, the Blue Dogs are 30 fiscally conservative House Democrats who tend to vote together as a coalition on budgetary and economic issues. Their stated goal is to bring their own party back to the center of the ideological spectrum, and to forge good working relationships with moderate Republicans to help move that party more toward a centrist agenda.

They have been most influential since their creation in the 104th Congress because of the leverage they exert as a unified voting bloc. The Republican leadership, with 223 Members on its side of the aisle, has only 5 votes to spare to meet the minimum 218 required to pass legislation If more than 5 Republican Members stray from the fold on any given vote, the leadership often turns to the Blue Dogs on the Democratic side of the aisle to gain their bloc vote in exchange for negotiated changes in legislative language.

The Blue Dogs derive their name from the artwork of a Cajun painter, George Rodrigue, well known in Louisiana for his series of paintings featuring an unusual blue dog. The fledgling members of what became the Blue Dog Coalition used to meet regularly in the offices of then-Democrats Rep. Billy Tauzin and Rep. Jimmy Hayes of Louisiana. Tauzin has since switched to the Republican party and Hayes was defeated in a run for the Senate. The Louisiana representatives had Rodrigue’s blue dog paintings displayed on the walls of their offices, and these provided the inspiration for the coalition’s name. One of the Blue Dogs, Rep. John Tanner from Tennessee, maintains that Blue Dogs are simply “yellow dogs that have been choked by extremes in both political parties to the point they have turned blue.”

Blue Dog Democrats are an actual voting coalition made up of Members of Congress, whereas Yellow Dog Democrat is an expression -- it describes a certain kind of voter. Nor are Blue Dogs ideological relatives of the "Yellow Dogs" of the South, even though they have similar names.

[JI7]

5. it's not exactly the same thing or opposite meaning

yellow dogs are those who vote for Dem no matter what.

blue dog is more a description for conservative leaning Dems (at least these days). there is a blue dog coalition of dems in the house made up of conservative leaning Dems. i guess for them it's more about the issues and not always voting "with" dems on the issues.

so i guess it's possible one can be both.

[TahitiNut]

8. Read this ...

http://www.c-span.org/questions/weekly55.htm

[last_texas_dem]

9. Blue Dogs

are moderate to conservative (particularly fiscal conservative) Democrats. They are a group formed within the House of Representatives that, I believe, formed in the mid-nineties; I think the year after the 'pugs took the majority.

At one point they numbered in the thirties or so, but there may not be as many now. They tend to be southern Democrats representing more conservative seats that usually vote Republican for President. Many of them are very concerned with deficits and work to control spending; in other words, they are more "conservative" when it comes to budgets than the typical "conservative" Republican these days.

As both parties become more unified internally and there are less moderates on either side there are going to be fewer "Blue Dogs." Witness how moderate Republicans are basically already extinct in Congress. Delay's nasty re-redistricting of the TX Congressional seats effortlessly knocked off several Blue Dogs at once. Seats held by retiring or defeated Blue Dogs tend to go Republican, though the upside is that Democrats are gaining ground in seats that once belonged to moderate Republicans.

As for "yellow dogs", somebody above already gave a good definition. Basically, yellow dog Democrats are people who say they'd vote for a yellow dog before they'd vote for a Republican; a product of the post-Civil War period when the south was solidly Democratic.

I can't think of any other types of "dog" Democrats, off the top of my head!