A pretty good explanation can be found here:

[Live and Learn]

More: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/11/blue-dogs-wiped-out-but-and-path-to.html

Cowan’s group wants to play a role in 2011 akin to the Democratic Leadership Council’s in 1995. Then, the last time Democrats lost the House, President Bill Clinton’s willingness to “triangulate” between traditional Democratic orthodoxies and the Republicans who controlled Congress led to welfare reform, community policing and a slew of smaller accomplishments that helped propel Clinton to a second term.

Third Way, with a staff of 35 and a $7 million budget for next year, has filled a vacuum left by the DLC’s loss of influence in the wake of founder Al From’s 2009 departure.

...[T]he group’s fellows and policy advisers will start rolling out memos and studies that offer a framework for how Democrats could reach common ground with Republicans. The economic team is developing a proposal that it thinks could win bipartisan support. It includes tort reform and incentives for research and development. And Cowan’s writing a paper with a colleague about “the danger of left-wing economic populism.”

With cap and trade effectively dead in a Republican House, Third Way will release a “Plan B” for energy reform. On Dec. 7, it’s hosting a summit on nuclear energy-- one of the group’s big causes-- with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Obama energy czar Carol Browner. - See more at: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/11/blue-dogs-wiped-out-but-and-path-to.html#sthash.8KelZcVG.dpuf