Larry Kissell Shows True Colors

Looks like Larry Kissell won't be campaigning as a blue dog, conservative Democrat anymore. Larry Kisell is not a conservative and he's not a moderate. He's a liberal Democrat in a conservative district which he owes 7,700 jobs. He won't be convinving his Eighth District constituents of anything else before 2010, either.

Larry Kissell Rejected from Blue Dog Coalition
So Much for Those “Fiscally Conservative” Credentials He Campaigned On

NRCC Press Release
March 5, 2009

Washington- The new membership list of the Blue Dog Coalition for the 111th Congress was released, but self-proclaimed “fiscal conservative” Rep. Larry Kissell’s name was noticeably absent. Despite Kissell’s rhetoric that he would be a good steward of the taxpayers’ dollars in Congress, did the Blue Dog Coalition see Kissell’s claims as nothing more than empty rhetoric?

In the two short months since he came to Congress, he’s repeatedly supported bills that hurt the middle-class families in his district. Could it be Kissell’s support for the pork-laden “stimulus” package and the omnibus spending bill - which were filled with wasteful Washington spending and tax hikes for small businesses – that excluded Kissell from admission to the Blue Dog Coalition? (House Roll Calls 46, 70, 86)

“Larry Kissell’s rejection from the conservative Blue Dog Coalition provides even more convincing evidence that Kissell’s calls for ‘fiscal responsibility’ were nothing more than empty rhetoric,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Since coming to Congress Kissell has repeatedly supported the liberal wing of his party’s unending spending spree and has failed to put the interests of middle-class families in his district first.”

The Blue Dog Coalition’s website describes itself as being “particularly active on fiscal issues, relentlessly pursuing a balanced budget and then protecting that achievement from politically popular ‘raids’ on the budget,” but it’s clear that despite all his rhetoric, Larry Kissell’s record does not hold up to these standards.

Update: From Dome

"Congressman Kissell pledged during the campaign that he would not join the Blue Dogs and therefore has not," Kissell spokeswoman Brianna Atkins.