It happened.

This morning when I discussed the arrogance of the House leadership in bypassing the Energy & Commerce in order to bring the Health Care legislation to the floor, one of my main points was how these actions would affect the will of the Blue Dogs.

Their Coalition's relative silence earlier this afternoon had me a bit worried, but this article just breaking from The Hill late this afternoon makes me quite a bit more optimistic about the direction of this debate.

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders.

The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill.

“I’ve been lied to,” Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. “We have not had legitimate negotiations.

[...]

"Waxman simply does not have votes in committee and process should not be bypassed to bring the bill straight to floor,” Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, said on Friday. “We are trying to save this bill and trying to save this party.”

Melancon said there would be 40-45 “solid no” votes from the 52-strong Blue Dogs, among other problems throughout the caucus.

“If they try to bring it to the floor, I think they’ll find out they have more problems with the Blue Dogs.”

A leadership aide said no decisions have been made on how to proceed.

Bring it to the Floor. I dare ya.