One of the so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats who managed to survive Tuesday night’s electoral slaughter is calling on Nancy Pelosi to step down from her Democratic leadership post. Representative Heath Shuler (D-NC) is threatening to challenge the San Francisco liberal for the leadership post unless she steps aside.

“If there’s not a viable alternative — like I said all along — I can go recruit moderate Members to run in swing districts,” said Shuler, a leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. “In that situation, I could do it better than she could, and that’s what it’s going to take. It’s going to take moderate candidates to win back those seats.”

The North Carolina Democrat said he didn’t “think it would be in the best interest” of House Democrats for Pelosi, a liberal, to be Minority Leader, and he predicted she would step aside in the wake of Tuesday’s election in which Democrats lost at least 60 seats. Pelosi has not yet said what her next move will be.

“I don’t foresee her accepting that role for the simple fact of what has happened,” said Shuler, who saw roughly two dozen of his Blue Dog colleagues lose re-election Tuesday.

Pelosi is wildly unpopular amongst average Americans, and in fact Republicans were able to knock off quite a few Democrats by connecting them to her. Shuler, who just barely survived the midterm election, is correct in his belief that Pelosi has become an albatross around the neck of the Democratic Party.

That said, Pelosi may decide to stay on and she may even have the votes to back her up, especially now that the caucus is smaller but more leftist than before. Many of those who lost their re-election bids were considered “moderates” while those in very liberal districts had a cruel tendency of getting re-elected.

I don’t see the far-left Democratic caucus putting someone like Shuler at the top. It’s far more likely that they stick with Pelosi or one of her far-leftist cronies.