At Time, Joe Klein is saying that the devastating Blue Dog losses are their own damn fault:
This year, however, I do feel that there is an argument that, to an extent, the Dogs brought this on themselves by being penny-wise, dogpound-foolish. The argument goes like this: a larger stimulus package might have helped the economy recover at a faster clip, but the Dogs opposed it on fiscal responsibility grounds. A second argument: the public really has had it with Wall Street, but the Dogs helped water down the financial regulatory bill, gutting the too-big-to-fail provisions. There is real merit to both points. If the stimulus had been bigger and the financial reform package clearer and stronger, the public would have had a different–and, I believe, more positive–sense of the President’s agenda.
Yes, when Democrats are bitch slapping the Democratic agenda, the whole party looks week, and voters hate to vote for weakness.
H/t Kevin Drum.