Blue Dog Disses Obama Plan at Town Hall

It's bad enough President Obama has Republicans, renegade doctors and a number of industry group trying to beat down his proposed health reform.

Now some Democrats are backing so far away that, in one case, a top Blue Dog congressman from Florida told his angry constituents he feels their pain and promised he won't vote for the health reform bill in the House (in its current form). That's one way to diffuse a mob at a town hall meeting.

Rep. Allen Boyd made his remarks to a group of about 200 at a meeting in Cross City, Florida, Monday, according to Tallahasse.com. He told the crowd that the current bill doesn't hold down health care costs.

Boyd is shown on CNN nodding in sympathy with his fellow Floridians, who took their shots at Washington.

One attendee told Boyd "the Congress we've got today reminds me of a jackass running in the Kentucky Derby," according to Tallahasse.com.

Boyd sits on the House budget and appropriations committees and is one of the leaders of the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, a group of 52 conservatives.

President Obama is going to need support from Blue Dogs in addition to a liberal base that's seething after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' comment Sunday that the White House would compromise on a government health plan to cover the uninsured.