Notepad

Remember the allegation leveled against the congressional "Blue Dogs" that was a meme in July? The one that said the members of that coalition of center-right Democrats are in the pockets of insurers, because the health care industry is filling their campaign treasuries with cash?

While some members of the Blue Dogs and their political action committee have been heavily funded by stakeholders in the health care debate -- including to a notable degree insurers -- donations to the PAC actually dried up a bit over the summer.

It's not that doctors, drug companies, insurers and lobbyists have stopped giving to the Blue Dogs. It's just that the fundraising haul for the centrist coalition's PAC for July and August was way down from its pace in May and June.

That's just one small measure -- the quarterly October filings for each member will tell the full story of who's getting what from stakeholders -- but it's worth taking a look at.