Democrats may have significant problems in their own backyard with a powerful bloc of fiscally conservative members of the Blue Dog Coalition who are fuming over the Senate’s inclusion of $149 billion in tax breaks that will go directly to the government’s books as deficit spending. Of the Blue Dogs’ 49 members, 23 voted for the bill Monday.

One possibility is that the bill’s Blue Dog supporters will still vote yes, but vote against the procedural rule needed to bring the bailout to the floor for a vote…

If the Blue Dogs protest the Senate’s changes by voting against their party on procedural questions, they risk derailing the bill and the entire agreement that got the bill through the Senate.

Because of the Blue Dog threat to vote against the procedural measure, Hoyer is asking Republican leaders to round up votes to pass the rule. Those procedural votes usually fall along party lines, and Republicans generally vote against them as a bloc.