RACHEL MADDOW: The Blue Dog Democrat caucus is a caucus of conservative democrats, in Congress.  There are 47 of them.  And you know how we reported yesterday that republicans were throwing procedural votes, procedural roadblocks in the way of the new G.I.. bill?  Well they are. They are doing that.  But the republicans are not the reason why we don't have a new G.I. bill passed yet.  We do not have a new G.I. bill passed yet.  Because of the Blue Dog Democrats.  Because the caucus of conservative democrats. They have decided that they don't want to go along with getting this passed.

I'm so mad i could spit.

The argument from the blue dogs, the argument from that is that they can't possibly pass a G.I..bill to give college benefits to vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan because the costs aren't offset elsewhere in the budget.  It would actually be an increased cost to the U.S. government to provide college benefits to vets – yes it would.  That’s the idea.  that we're promising vets that we'll pay for college for  them, like we did after World War II, but in the past couple of decades, the value of what we're offering them has degraded to the point where American G.I. bill benefits are essentially meaningless now.

The whole point of the new G.I. bill is that the benefits will once again become meaningful benefits again, like they were for World War II vets –like even they were for Vietnam vets.  And yes, making the benefits meaningful – means an increased expenditure on our vets.  That is true.

The Blue Dog Democrats, every one of whom has supported infinite spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that that spending wasn’t offset anywhere else in the budget.  Every one of them who’s an enthusiastic funder of the war, as best as I can tell.  The Blue Dog Democrats who haven't made peep one about funding, say, the two hundred billion dollars of war funding that's on the table right now. The Blue Dog Democrats are drawing the line, saying we're happy to ram as much money as Bush and the republicans ever ask for into the Pentagon.  But when it comes to a little money for veterans affairs?  When it comes to a little money for paying benefits to our veterans who are fighting these wars they're enthusiastically funding?

That's the place they want to draw the line and claim fiscal responsibility.

These are Democrats.

Conservative Democrats.  Who are the reason we do not have a new G.I. bill even though it's got huge majority support.  I called my friend Paul Reickoff today to ask him about the status of the G.I. bill because I knew that the planned vote on it yesterday had been delayed. I asked him how it was going, in terms of trying to get it passed; he said he spent the entire day today on the phone, one by one with the Blue Dog Democrat. It is not the Republicans who are stopping it, it’s the rightwing Democrats. They're against the G.I. bill because it's too expensive but they're totally fine with borrowing from China every cent that they're enthusiastically dumping into fighting the war.  They're happy to pay anything to create combat veterans.  But not to make good on our promises to them once they're home.

I actually don't know if I’m more angry at the Blue Dog Democrats over this?  Or at the Democratic leadership for being so incompetent and weak and pointless that they can't control the members of their own party enough to get something like this through.  Give me a wish list for Democratic leadership, and I honestly would not make a wish between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for president, I sure as heck would wish for Harry Reid and even Nancy Pelosi, to take a real quick ride into the sunset back to the backbenches.  I want Russ Feingold for senate majority leader. And I want anyone better than NancyPelosi at enforcing some discipline and getting things done and controlling the Blue Dog Democrats in the House when need be to be speaker.  Argh.