I've analyzed the pro-GOP voting in 29 votes in the 109th between the main groups of Dems - Blue Dogs (37 reps), NDC (46), CBC (40), CPC (58), plus the unaffiliated (the 68 belonging to none of these groups) - to see where the dissent tends to lie.

It will come as no surprise that, on that score, the Blue Dogs are top of the heap: in the list of reps with the top 10 highest scores for dissenting votes, seven are Blue Dogs (including one dual BD/NDC), one is NDC, and two unaffiliated. These ten reps alone account for 191 votes, 20.5% of the 931 pro-GOP votes cast in the 29 RCVs.

The 'guilty' ten:

Note that I'm not making any judgements here: it looks to me as if these reps' districts are not the most liberal in the country, and that could well explain their votes. At this stage, I'm your regular Joe Friday: Just the facts.

Looking at reps #11-20 on the list, all bar one are Blue Dogs, with one unaffiliated; four are NDC, two are CBC, Brer Ford is all three. These ten cast 146 of the 931 votes.

Reps #21-30 (all Blue Dogs, four also NDC) supply 122 pro-GOP votes.

All quite predictable: there are a few outliers - Blue Dog Sanchez of CA laid a duck egg for Uncle Tom; and the CPC's Clay of MO slapped him five. But the bodies are mostly buried where you'd expect. (To judge from an initial shuffle through the sheets.)

The 31 Dem reps at the top of the list (in descending order of pro-GOP votes, natch) gave just under 50% of the total Dem pro-GOP votes; 83 Dem reps cast either one such vote or none.

Only three (Edwards (TX), Gordon (TN) and Skelton (MO) of the unaffiliated Dem reps cast more pro-GOP votes than the average Blue Dog quota (12.1%); 32 of them cast either one such vote or none.

Of the CBC, the top four (Bishop (GA), Ford, Scott (GA) and Wynn (MD) account for 51 of the 120 pro-GOP votes cast; 20 CBC each gave either one or none.

More to come, I hope.