2.  Blue Dogs Say Pelosi's a Cruel Master

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pushing her party to include a public option in the health care bill, one of several more liberal positions that has conservative House Democrats fretting. Many of these lawmakers worry that Pelosi's agenda endangers their chances of re-election, which could dramatically downsize the Dems' majority in the House, a "fear [that] has been intensifying in recent weeks," according to the Hill. Eighty-four Democrats represent House districts that voted for a Republican president in at least one of the past two elections. "She keeps trying to push an unpopular package," Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., tells the newspaper. But while Pelosi has strong-armed some fellow Democrats into liberal votes on health care and the climate bill, she has also been fairly lenient on oil exploration and gun laws, allowing vulnerable colleagues to vote with their districts' persuasions. 

Read original story in The Hill | Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009