With the mild resistance that the Blue Dog Democrats are putting up to the Democratic leadership's health care bill, just about every media outlet has labeled the group and its members "fiscally conservative."

A quick tip for the journalism majors who are penning such words: not everyone slightly to the right of the far left is "conservative." To the right of the far left you will find an array of categories, such as leftist/liberal, left-leaning, moderate, and only then do things start tilting toward conservatism.

So please, refrain from placing the Blue Dogs, who regularly vote to the left of even liberal Republicans and for such decidedly fiscally unconservative horrors such as the gargantuan "stimulus" package, anywhere other than to the left of moderation.

Dear journalists, you might not realize it, but when anyone to the right of the far left is called "conservative," then actual conservatives suddenly sound like far right extremists, and average leftists appear to be moderates. Come to think about it, actually, you most likely realize this fact quite fully.