Kent Conrad is not in any meaningful sense a Democrat

Kent Conrad reportedly (on the same day) endorses ripping off America's seniors to cut the deficit (i.e. Simpson/Bowles) (even though social security is off budget and most of the national debt results from a combination of the Financial Debacle, 2 tragic and useless wars (~$5 trillion); and almost $1½ trillion since 2001 in very dubious expansion of the "national security state").... AND... endorses extending the Bush tax cuts for the very rich (which bipartisan analysis says will cost $600 billion over 10 years). The contradiction between these two goals doesn't apparently bother Mr. Conrad at all.

This is why Blue Dogs are no use to us and should be encouraged to exit our party. We need to build a consensus, and a majority, that actually believes in something. I for one think that if the Democratic Party stood for a set of core principles (just like the Know Nothing Party does), it would be more attractive to independent voters, and would in fact become a majority party relatively quickly given the state of the economy and the frustration and dispiritedness of the electorate.