Posted on 02/24/2011 8:05:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind
So says National Journal, which rated 96 key votes in the US Senate in 2010, in its annual listings announced this morning for both the Senate and the House. NJ once ranked a junior Senator from Illinois as the most liberal member of the upper chamber in 2007, but he still managed to win the Presidency running as a centrist. There’s reason to be suspicious of this outcome as well:
The politician who once best exemplified the idea of a “maverick” independent has shifted so far to the right that he is now tied for the title of the Senate’s most conservative member, according to National Journal‘s 2010 vote ratings.
According to a comprehensive examination of 96 Senate votes taken in 2010, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., along with seven of his colleagues, voted most often on the conservative side. His 89.7 composite conservative score ties him with stalwarts like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and gives him a more conservative score than Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
McCain’s shift is emblematic of the Republican Party’s shift rightward and of the profound changes that NJ’s latest Vote Ratings reveal in Congress. A detailed analysis, including an interactive chart that will allow readers to examine and manipulate the data, will be available tomorrow.
That analysis of a shift rightward led by McCain might be worthwhile — if we knew what votes NJ used in its scoring, and which it ignored. The problem here, as it was in the 2007 rankings, is the selection of votes for scoring by NJ. While vote selection by advocacy groups for scoring usually is rather obvious — right-to-life groups score on bills that impact abortion, for instance — a media outlet, even one as respected as NJ, has to select votes that they believe are representative of ideological bent. A sample of 96 votes out of 299 might be good enough, but it depends on which votes one counts.
The Poole Reports use a better measure. Instead of handpicking specific votes, Dr. Keith Poole and his team use all of the votes in a session (not a year) and throw out unanimous and nearly-unanimous votes, such as on resolutions and office-naming legislation. The report calculates all votes with significant dissent and then derives averages of how often each member voted with their own party. That gives a much better representation of “maverickiness” and polarity within each chamber and caucus. In the 110th Congress, the Poole report showed Russ Feingold occupying his regular spot as the most liberal Senator, with Obama coming in at 16th.
Poole has the report up for the 111th Congress. In descending order, the most conservative Senators were:
Is anyone surprised by this? John McCain, by the way, ranked 26th on this list, far back from Lindsey Graham, who came in at #14. Jeff Sessions finished at #8. McCain’s middle-of-the-pack performance still showed more conservative bent than fifteen other Republicans, including Lamar Alexander, Thad Cochran, Chuck Grassley, and Lisa Murkowski. Finishing last were Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and in last place Olympia Snowe, which will come up in her primary fight next year.
Who were the 111th’s most liberal Senators? In descending order, ignoring the brief assignment of temporary Robert Byrd replacement Carte Goodwin:
None of these should surprise anyone, either, except perhaps Feingold’s dethroning by Franken.
Most conservative:
Jim DeMint
Most (demonically) liberal:
Barbara Boxer
Who publishes the National Journal, Marvel?
McCain securely locking the barn door after all livestock has run off
Had to have come from Mad Magazine.
LOL!!!
McCain logs conservative votes during an ELECTION year. Truly shocking.
Is that why Juan has been so busy hugging Barry ever since he got re-elected?
Ding ding ding, winner
Just to put this in perspective, a out and out open self proclaimed Marxist, is only the 5 most liberal senator.....
Palin surely helped him get re-elected. UGGGGGGG
Yea, saw this on Drudge, read the first line of the article, and stopped reading. The link is a blank page now, But it mentioned something about McCain being the most conservative. Right.
I’m surprised that Bernie comes in so far back in the liberal pack. He virtually foams at the mouth when he’s interviewed on TV.
And some here wanted McCain to lose to the Dem.
Perfect 2010 ACU Rating of 100
BARRASSO
BROWNBACK
CHAMBLISS
COBURN
CORNYN
CRAPO
DEMINT
HATCH
MCCAIN
RISCH
SESSIONS, Jeff
THUNE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2010 ACU Rating of Zero
Akaka
Boxer
Brown, Sherrod
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Dodd
Durbin
Franken
Gillibrand
Harkin
Inouye
Johnson, Tim
Kerry
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin, Carl
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Reed, Jack
Reid, Harry
Schumer
Shaheen
Specter
Stabenow
Udall, Tom
Whitehouse
SenateReports.com calculates how conservative or progressive a Senator’s ideology is based on their roll call votes with their party’s majority votes greater than one while the other party’s majority of votes is less than one. In other words the roll call vote had no majority support from the other Party. For example if 21 Republican Senators voted ‘YEA’ and 15 voted ‘NAY’ on a roll call vote the party majority would be 6, if all 40 Republican Senators voted ‘YEA’ then the party majority would be 40. On the same roll call vote if 40 Democratic Senators voted ‘NAY’ and 15 voted ‘YEA’ then the party majority would -25 or 25. The Democratic majority did not support that roll call vote. The number of Republican Majority roll call votes greater than 1 ‘AND’ the number of Democratic Majority roll call vote less than 1 was ‘EQUAL’ to 84 of 299 roll call votes in 2010.
The number of Democratic Majority roll call votes greater than 1 ‘AND’ the number of Republican Majority roll call votes less than 1 was ‘EQUAL’ to 150 of 299 roll call votes in 2010. The number of votes a Senator voted with their party’s majority based on how their own party majority voted against the other party’s majority determined how progressive or conservative that Senator may be.
Unlike the National Journal there is nothing subjective about the SenateReports.com ranking process, the Senators by their votes with or against their Party Majority determine how ‘partisan’ they really are.
The results of the Senators voting with or against their Party’s Majority on key votes determined by the Party Majorities themselves have determined that Al Franken from Minnesota is the most Progressive Senator and John Thune from South Dakota is the most Conservative Senator during the 2010 Congressional year. Senators John Thune and Al Franken voted alike 57 times or 19.1%, they voted not alike 242 or 80.9% out of 299 votes during the 111 2nd Session (2010) of Congress.
Most Conservative
Rank LastName FirstName State Party Percent
1 Thune John South Dakota Republican 100%
2 Cornyn John Texas Republican 99%
2 Hatch Orrin Utah Republican 99%
2 McCain John Arizona Republican 99%
2 Burr Richard North Carolina Republican 99%
3 McConnell Mitch Kentucky Republican 98%
3 Risch Jim Idaho Republican 98%
3 Crapo Mike Idaho Republican 98%
3 Graham Lindsey South Carolina Republican 98%
3 Enzi Micheal Wyoming Republican 98%
Most Progressive
Rank LastName FirstName State Party Percent
1 Franken Al Minnesota Democratic 100%
2 Cardin Benjamin Maryland Democratic 99%
2 Levin Carl Michigan Democratic 99%
2 Stabenow Debbie Michigan Democratic 99%
2 Schumer Charles New York Democratic 99%
2 Brown Sherrod Ohio Democratic 99%
2 Feinstein Dianne California Democratic 99%
2 Durbin Richard Illinois Democratic 99%
2 Casey Robert Pennsylvania Democratic 99%
2 Whitehouse Sheldon Rhode Island Democratic 99%
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