Think President Obama had a 60-vote majority in the Senate that was spoiled by the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts? Think again. Aside from ‘Independent’ (McCain Republican) Joe Lieberman, there are ten die-hard ‘ConservaDem’ Blue Dog Democrats, as well as another five senators who tend toward Blue Doggerel. That means progressives would have had trouble getting even fifty votes on any important reform legislation. Read on, especially below the fold:

The Rachel Maddow Show, March 18, 2009, “Evan Bayh and the ConservaDems”:

The finance/insurance/real estate sector, responsible for the devastation of the economy is especially close to [Indiana ‘Democratic’ Sen. Evan] Bayh and many of the members of his [‘ConservaDem’] bloc. These industries have donated more legalized bribes to members of Congress than any other sector — $2.2 billion since 1990. [A]nd while most of the money has gone to actual Republicans (55%), take a look how some of the very worst Democrats have raked in the tainted money in return for voting against their constituents’ interests (the 10 worst listed in order from corrupt to even more corrupt):

Jeanne Shaheen ($997,310)
Mark Udall ($1,669,706)
Blanche Lincoln ($1,671,292)
Tom Carper ($2,160,628)
Mary Landieu ($2,399,134)
Mark Warner ($2,431,066)
Ben Nelson ($2,667,406)
Bill Nelson ($3,056,968)
Evan Bayh ($3,987,896)
Joe Lieberman ($9,981,924)
— From “The ConservaDems — Evan Bayh’s New Anti-Obama Bloc,” Down With Tyranny blog, March 19, 2009.