John Tanner, a Blue Dog who voted against both health care and the climate bill and has a “crucial vote” score on Progressive Punch of just 40%, will retire at the end of the term, giving up a seat that went 56-43 for John McCain in 2008.

This is the second Blue Dog to retire in less than a week, with Dennis Moore (KS-03) doing the same. Moore’s seat, which actually went for Obama in ’08, is more likely to stay in Democratic hands. And Tanner was actually a founder of the Blue Dogs.

We have discussed at FDL News the lack of money flowing to Blue Dog’s PAC in recent months – they received just three donations in the entire month of September. They don’t have much of a war chest at this stage of the cycle. One wonders if this is figuring in to some Blue Dog decisions on retirements, aside from the political environment.