OH, THIS IS MORE THAN JUICY - AT 9:39 P.M. ET:  After months of dissecting the supposed splits in the Republican Party, some in the media are discovering that the major political civil war going on today is within the Democratic Party.  The Hill reports:

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders.

In advance of a subsequent press conference called by House leadership, Blue Dog liaison Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) said the healthcare bill should be staying in committee.

"I expect the committee process to proceed," Cardoza said.

The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill.

Such mutual respect and affection.  I'm moved.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, said on Friday. “We are trying to save this bill and trying to save this party.”

COMMENT:  Ross is a man who gets it.  Unless the power of the ultra-libs can be curtailed, the Democratic Party may fall right off the deep end.  More Americans identify themselves as conservatives than as liberals.  Although it may shock the media to point it out, the ideology of America is not the same as the ideology of Manhattan, Georgetown, or Beverly Hills.

July 24, 2009