Your arizona ACU ratings for McCain are off.
lifetime rating of 82.3% from the American Conservative Union is often cited as proof that he is conservative. Here is a closer look at that 82.3 rating.
First, a rating of 82.3 is not really that high. It puts Senator McCain in 39th place among senators serving in 2006, the latest year for which the ACU has its ratings posted online. For that most recent year in particular, McCain scored only 65, putting him in 47th place for that year. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), for example, scored 64 and 75, respectively, in 2006.
Generally, McCain has voted less conservatively in more recent years. His average for 1990-97 was 88, but was only 74 for 1998-2006. Below are his yearly ratings since 1990.
Year
ACU Rating
2006
65
2005
80
2004
72
2003
80
2002
72
2001
68
2000
81
1999
77
1998
68
1997
80
1996
95
1995
91
1994
96
1993
83
1992
85
1991
86
1990
87
So where did McCain differ from the ACU? The big areas were taxes, campaign finance reform, the environment and, most recently, immigration. There was also a smattering of support for trial lawyers; federal intervention in health, education, safety or voting issues; internationalism; and some social issues. He was more consistently conservative on spending and defense issues. The list below summarizes all his votes since 1998 that differed from the ACU’s position.
Another piece of information from the list above is that many of the votes were close. In one third of these votes, a swing of only two senators would have changed the outcome. In over two thirds, a swing of ten senators would have changed the outcome. As someone remarked, McCain is like a baseball player who gets all his hits after two outs and no one on base, and all his outs with men in scoring position.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/mccains_acu_ratings.html
“For comparison, Sens. Isakson (GA), Sessions (AL), Grassley (IA), Roberts (KS), McConnell (KY), and Hutchison (TX) all had 96% ratings from the ACU in 2009. Should we get rid of them too?”
Wouldn’t be a bad start! The ones you name often vote non conservative, and usually for amnesty, just like McCain.
We can have either a majority in Congress, or ideological purity. We can’t have both. The country is deeply divided, just about 50/50. So you want to get rid of seven senators because they’re four points short of 100% on the ACU scale? I’m a conservative. Don’t get me wrong. But I’m a broad spectrum conservative. Each and every one of the Republican members of Congress, including every last RINO, voted to stop ObamaCare. No exceptions.
I believe in nominating conservatives wherever possible. In a few extremely rare cases, where the Republican nominee is hopelessly liberal and there’s a conservative third party candidate (like Doug Hoffman against Dede Scozzafava), I’ll support the third-party candidate and do everything I can to get him elected. But in nearly every case, once we have a GOP nominee, we need to get that GOP nominee elected.
There’s strength in continuity and loyalty too. We expect candidates to be loyal to the party. In return, unless the candidate is as far to the left as Scozzafava, or corrupt like Mark Foley, we need to be loyal to the candidate.
-- The ACU Senate ratings are posted through 2009. Link to 2009 ratings
-- No current Dem senator has a higher lifetime rating than McCain's, or any other GOP senator for that matter.
-- 10 current GOP senators have a lower lifetime ACU rating than John McCain, including Thad Cochran, Judd Gregg and Richard Shelby.
I don't support McCain in his primary, but them's the facts.