Recently, Jim Cooper was very upset at being mistaken for Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, the head of the Blue Dog health care task force who has been in the news lately for some suspect real estate dealings and for steadfastly refusing to support the public option along with many of his Blue Dog colleagues.

Yet, back in the spring, on a public affairs show hosted by Rep. Ross, Rep. Cooper praised his fellow Blue Dog colleague on health care in unmistakably glowing terms:

Well, Mike, first I want to congratulate you. Because nobody's fought harder in Congress than you have for better health care for all of our people. These are tough issues. But you are on the key committee in Congress that oversees all of this. You've been selected by your Blue Dog colleagues to be the head of the health committee that's going to help engineer reform.

It's no surprise that fellow Blue Dog Cooper would have praised Ross' approach. As NPR reported just a few weeks ago, the Blue Dogs, led by Cooper and Ross, have been raking in contributions this year from big insurance while largely ignoring the serious health care needs of their constituents:

One leader of the Blue Dog effort is Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, the coalition's chief health care negotiator. His 4th Congressional District covers southern Arkansas, a rural area with a high poverty rate. In his district, more than one out of five residents under age 65 lacks health insurance. That's 30 percent higher than the national average... in June, Ross and the Blue Dog Coalition held up the House bill for two weeks. They wanted the measure to promote co-ops instead of a public option, an approach that more liberal lawmakers dismiss as unworkable.

So far this year, the Blue Dogs' political action committee has received $301,500 from health care and health insurance PACs. Ross, the coalition's lead negotiator, has received $100,600 for his campaign committee and a PAC that he operates.

Ross got together with health care industry donors in June, around the same time the Blue Dogs were challenging the House bill. The event brought his campaign at least $20,000 from health care PACs.

NPR asked repeatedly to interview Ross over a two-week period. His office didn't respond.

And Jim Cooper? According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, he has been lapping it up as well:

The Center for Responsive Politics' Capital Eye Blog this summer examined the influence of health-sector contributions to Blue Dogs, noting many have been getting more money from insurance and pharmaceutical interests than their non-Blue Dog Democratic counterparts. The center tracks the influence of money on public policy.

The No. 3 recipient from the health sector since 1989, the center reported, was Tanner, who has collected $949,249, including $252,950 from health insurance interests and $300,970 from pharmaceuticals. U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., ranked second among the Blue Dogs, collecting $1.1 million from health sector contributors, and U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., ranked fifth with $896,414.