Posted on 12/29/2015 3:01:08 PM PST by LS
All: I'm in discussions with some Twitter guys trying to crow about Rubio's voting record and overall "conservatism." He has a GREAT ACU record (over 95%), but I looked at the ACU site to see how it assigns this and I want to make sure I have this right, so please weigh in:
ACU gives a legislator + or - based on votes for or against a position ACU holds, plus STATEMENTS about positions ACU holds.
So am I right that someone could amass a very high ACU record, yet either be absent---or vote the wrong way---on the final or key vote in a bill's process.
So, with Rubio, I'm assuming he voted for the Corker bill and for TPP. I don't know what ACU's position is on those, but I would hope it is "no." Let's say it's "no": wouldn't it be possible to vote "correctly" many times on procedural and process votes that get to the final "real" vote?
Specifically, what were Coburn’s bad votes?
jim demint complained about the acu as being too incumbent friendly. he devised the heritage foundation rating for congress.
redstate uses the heritage foundation’s rating when judging senators.
This covered some of the problems with Coburn:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3350262/posts
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/14/389190/coburn-liberals-honest-deficit/
When leftist websites start singing your praises, you know there’s a problem.
The question then is why is he viewed as a RINO squish? I never knew he was a global warming “denier”-—maybe because I never heard him say it. So is it a message problem?
He’s viewed as a RINO HERE at FR because of immigration, which is the #1 paramount issue for a lot of freepers and has been for a long time, he was well liked as the Crist slayer until he signed on to the gang of 8.
Jon Kyl was treated the same way, remember that “Jorge Bush” Juan McCain” “Juan Kyl” cartoon picture of the 3 them in Mexican garb? Kyl’s record was among the best in the Senate but he was involved in trying to pass shamnesty under Bush so he became tainted here. His successor Jeff Flake is likewise much more conservative that McCain, but signed on to the gang of 8 so is oft mentioned in the same breath as him.
There is a tendency toward hyperbole whist criticizing Republicans here. And organizations, the Chamber of Commerce spend millions defeating democrat swine and are right on most issues but they favor shamnesty so some freepers talk about them as if they were NAMBLA and that opening the border was their raison d’etre. Some take the view that if you aren’t strong on immigration you may as well be a commie cause we’re doomed if strong action isn’t taken.
Not to say people aren’t justified in being p*ssed off at Senators and groups for being wrong on immigration, which is at or the near the top of the list of most critical issues. But I try to keep perspective.
I guess what I sense about Rubio is that he really isn't "known" for anything . . . other than Gang of Eight. If he had all these great positions, where was he on leadership? Why did it take a Trump to say "halt Muslim immigration?" Why didn't Rubio kill the Iran deal, or line up forces to do so?
ACU sold out years ago when the very eh, flawed David Keane ran it. They once held up their ratings for a year to get a 100% rating for a guy in Florida (forget his name he didn’t win anyway). They are useless.
Govtrack.com ranks him pretty highly in “leadership score” which is measured by how many other Senators co-sponsor his bills.
But you’re right I don’t recall him leading the charge on any conservative issues. That’s a great point you could make.
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