41 House Democrats voted for the "Protect America Act of 2007" tonight, and of these 41, 32 are from "red" districts.  Only 4 are from even what could be called "blue" districts.  

I certainly would rather have these 41 in Congress than the Republicans who would usually represent them, and this may very well be a case of voting with the constituents, but it's certainly something to think about whether these guys are adding to conservative credentials to win conservative districts. It could very well add to an idea of "playing politics with the Constitution".

I have to give some credit here to Tim Johnson (IL-15) and Walter Jones (NC-3) of voting against this.

Listed below are the 41 who voted for it, and their Cook Partisan Voting Indices for their district.

Progressives, long in the pro-choice camp have wondered how can they reframe the abortion debate to improve their electoral standing.

I know campaigning in a fairly conservative areas, I've met tons of people who's most important issue is that of abortion.  I've met people who wouldn't vote for my candidates because they were pro-choice.

Anna Quindlen, a columnist for Newsweek, may give progressives the answer.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20010696/sit e/newsweek/

According to New Republic senior editor Noam Schiber, their days have faded away and they have become irrelevant in the Democratic party.  Here is a link to the op-ed from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/opinio n/28scheiber.html

I, for one, have been thinking this for a while, and I will not miss their influence within the party.