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Bayh refuses to name anonymous members of his new Blue-Dog style coalition.

This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) officially announced the creation of his new Blue-Dog style coalition of approximately 15 “moderate” Democratic senators. As Roll Call explained last week, members of the group “acknowledge that they are seeking to restrain the influence of party liberals.” During his announcement, host Joe Scarborough asked Bayh who is in the new coalition. Bayh said that while a press release on the group’s creation included the names of 12 senators, there are “three or four” who don’t want to be identified:

SCARBOROUGH: This is great! Can you tell us who’s in it?

BAYH: Well there are about 12 of us on the press release and then there are three or four who we are putting in the witness protection program, who attend our meetings but don’t want to be publicly identified yet.

Watch it:

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Explaining the likely rational for senators not wanting to be publicly associated with Bayh’s new group, Matt Yglesias writes, “After all, Barack Obama is popular! And his agenda is popular! So if you choose to oppose it, you might face political problems. So better to keep the sabotage secret.”