Mississippi's House delegation is now majority GOP. Gene Taylor is out.

This may not surprise you if you aren't familiar with Mississippi politics. In fact, this has only happened once since Reconstruction (105th Congress, 97-99). Mississippi's House delegation has been majority blue for the rest of the time. (Our Senate was all blue until Stennis died, too: Cochran didn't want to deal with the Dem primary and switched.)

Now, were these liberal Democrats? No. These were the most lazuli canine of blue dogs. These were rather conservative people representing even more conservative people who still believed in our party's ideals enough to support us for the leadership vote.

Taylor lost. Childers lost. Thompson, on the other hand, stomped his R opponent (he represents the delta).

I know we hate blue dogs here. But I was born and raised in Mississippi. I like that we used to manage to stay blue despite being a very conservative state. And blue dogs were part of that. No, Gene Taylor didn't vote with us on most bills, but he voted to keep us in the House. And, like I said, this is only the 2nd time this has happened since Reconstruction ended. May it not last.

during the Brownie (Drownie) hearing. The rest of the time, not so much.

On a personal level I really like the guy. He did the best he could in the district. And he is fairly conservative on a lot of issues. But I'm disturbed by the purge (self-imposed or otherwise) of centrists from both parties.

Which surprises me.