The origin of their label is subject to dispute. Some claim they derive their name from artist George Rodrigue — famous for using a small blue dog in his paintings that were hung throughout the offices of two Blue Dog charter members, Representatives Billy Tauzin and Jimmy Hayes. Others believe the name describes the reaction of Democratic hard-liners, "who choke until they turn blue," to these moderates.

Matheson affirms that "Blue Dogs are mainstream, where most Utahns and Americans exist." All Utahns are fortunate for his leadership of a rational alternative to Beltway shenanigans.

Webb: My problem with the Blue Dogs is that they are nice and blue at home but they turn a liberal shade of pink in Washington. Jim Matheson would, for example, vote to make Nancy Pelosi House speaker, one of the most liberal Democrats ever.

Since the Democrats are out of power, their leaders have nothing to lose by allowing the Blue Dogs to act like they are conservative. But Demo leaders would be chasing those dogs back into the kennel if their votes were crucial.

I have a beef with all the dogs in Congress, be they blue, brown, purple or green. I think Congress has become seriously dysfunctional.

At home, members of Congress, even long-term incumbents, rail against Washington and its craziness, but then they return to Washington and are absorbed by it.

Like most people, I like my own congressional delegation. But I think Congress in general is a mess. It has lost the ability to deal with the most pressing problems facing society. Congress looks short-term, to the next election, while the long-term outlook for our children and grandchildren is becoming scary.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof says we're essentially "preying on our children . . . we're running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today."

Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff and personal finance expert Scott Burns call this "fiscal child abuse" in their book, "The Coming Generational Storm." They note that a Treasury Department study on U.S. long-term liabilities found that the government faces a present value "fiscal gap" — the excess of expected payments over expected revenues — of $51 trillion. "That's 11 times our official national debt and also greater than our total net worth, meaning that in some sense we're bankrupt," said Kristof.