‘Blue Dog’ Democrat calls it quits
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
U.S. Rep. John Tanner, a Tennessee Democrat and co-founder of the conservative Blue Dog coalition, announced Tuesday that he would retire next year after 11 terms in Congress.
Tanner, 65, said in a statement that he and wife Betty Ann had considered his retirement in 2007. He was persuaded to seek one more term because of the chance he could be elected president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at what he called ‘this critical moment in the war in Afghanistan.’
‘We believed we owed it to our country to stay and fulfill this term of office as NATO PA President,’ he said in a statement. ‘This mandate expires in November 2010, and therefore, we have made the decision not to seek reelection to Congress.’
Tanner was first elected to the 8th Congressional District representing rural northwestern Tennessee in 1988.
In 1994, he co-founded the conservative Democrats’ Blue Dog coalition -- fiscal hawks who said they were ‘choked blue’ by their party’s liberal flank.
The group’s name is a play on yellow dog Democrats, a moniker that emerged in the 1920s to describe party loyalists in the South who, it was said, would vote for a yellow dog if it ran on the Democratic ticket.
In his floor speeches, Tanner frequently criticized tax cuts and soaring budget deficits under former President George W. Bush’s administration. However in 2009, he voted for the economic stimulus package, saying he worried that the economy would continue in a deflationary downward spiral without action.
He also voted for the auto bailout.
Still, Tanner and the Blue Dogs have pushed President Obama to carry out his promises for budget reform after the economy recovers.
‘Our nation faces many severe and unrelenting problems,’ Tanner said in the statement. ‘I will stay active on these matters and continue my efforts with the Blue Dogs and others of good will.’
-- Associated Press