While Democrats control the House of Representatives by 231-202, they cannot pass progressive bills on health care, the environment, jobs, justice, and impeachment - or even stop horrendous Republican bills on Iraq, torture, and warrantless wiretapping - because a few dozen "Bush Democrats" usually vote with George Bush.
One solution is to elect more Democrats to increase our majority so "Bush Democrats" matter less, and many netroots groups like Moveon.org, DailyKos.com, and Blue America are doing this brilliantly.
The other solution is to support progressive Democrats in primaries against "Bush Democrats," and that's why we launched this effort, drawing heavily on the excellent advice of Blue America's Howie Klein.
The main reason progressives have avoided primaries against Democratic incumbents is the fear that a divisive primary might help turn a "Bush Democratic" seat into a Republican seat. Realistically, there may be a few "Bush Democrats" who are uniquely able to win in Republican districts and therefore should not be challenged in a Democratic primary. But those are the exceptions, not the rule - especially in an election like 2008 where Democrats have a large lead due to widespread disgust with Bush and the entire Republican Party. We will not target incumbents who are truly exceptional.
While we focus on replacing incumbent Bush Democrats, there are two other situations in which progressive Democrats face Bush Democrats:
* Open seats where progressive Democrats are running against Bush Democrats
* Progressive Democratic incumbents who are being challenged by Bush Democrats
You can help all of our progressive Democratic candidates through our Actblue page:
http://www.actblue.com/page/bushdemocrats1. Incumbent Bush Democrats who deserve primary challenges
Below is a list of Democrats who voted wrong on one or more crucial votes. Some are hard-core "Bush Democrats" while others simply join them from time to time.
By publishing this list, we hope to accomplish several goals:
1. Persuade these Democrats to stop voting with Bush so we don't have to challenge them in a primary. Democrats who reverse their bad votes and genuinely embrace progressive positions will be crossed off our list
2. Encourage progressive Democrats to run primaries against those who keep voting with Bush
MORE plus chart:
http://www.democrats.com/bushdemocrats