This wasn't too surprising.

Representative Mike Ross, who leads the so-called "Blue Dog" conservative coalition, said they had reached a deal with leadership after days of long negotiations.

CNN said that under the agreement, a healthcare bill would be moved to committee by Friday but that the full House would not take the issue up until September after it returns from its month-long break.

Mind-numbing crap, but an interesting back story.

The more unpopular the health-care bill becomes, the more the President needs it to pass and the more the Blue Dog Democrats need it to fail. They will already be dealing with a trillion dollar load of crap in the failed stimulus bill, and they certainly don't need the coup-de-grace the health-care bill would provide.

This agreement simply gives the communists time to engineer a full-scale media assault on the country in attempt to turn the polls around.

Good luck with that.

From the Blue Dog perspective, its a no-risk proposition. They postpone a vote, thus delaying the hard choice of alienating party leadership or pissing off voters. They will go back to their districts and "listen" to voters, thus justifying any vote they make in September (if it actually comes to a vote...)

For the President and Nancy Pelosi, this is a hail Mary pass. They have 45 days to change the minds of the American people about their health-care package.

With a compliant state media, you'd ordinarily have to give them good odds of getting it done, but Obama has already squandered much of his political good will. He's lost 3 points in a week and its almost certainly because of this issue. More importantly, he's on the rhetorical ropes. He's followed the two courses open to him, with is to say "trust me", and to demonize the current health-care regime. I really don't know what else he can do at this point.

Then there is the reality of a increasingly muscular opposition. The national news might be able to ignore the tea parties, but local news has to cover them. I expect that every Blue Dog Democrat is going to be experiencing a tea party in the next month in case they miss the point.

All in all--a pretty good deal for the Blue Dogs.