The "Gang of 14"---Just How "Moderate" Are They?
Sick of hearing the group of senators who derailed the so-called "Constitutional" or "Nuclear" option to prevent filibusters of judicial nominees called "moderate"?
Take a gander at this.
The American Conservative Union and Americans for Democratic Action provide bellwether ratings for each member of Congress as to how conservative or liberal they are based on a 100-point scale. The graph belows shows the distribution of the Democrats in blue and Republicans in red. Ken Salazar has no legislative record as of yet and so is not included:
The table below was used to generate the plot:
Digging into the data, we should note that the Democrats consist of 4 diehard liberals (Byrd, Inouye, Lieberman and Landrieu all have ADA ratings 75 or greater) and 1 moderate (Ben Nelson, who has ADA <=75 and ACU >= 25).
The Republicans have 2 diehard conservatives (Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Graham have ACU scores > 75), 5 moderates (McCain, Warner, DeWine, Snowe, and Collins who have ADA >= 25 and ACU <= 75), and 1 liberal (Chafee, of course).
Put another way, Ben Nelson's the only real moderate in a very liberal Democrat group, while the Republicans mustered only 2 conservatives for their side. Only 6 out of the 14 can be considered moderate, and 5 of these are Republicans. Yet the LWM manages to paint this group as "moderates" all.
Kind of puts conservative complaints about "The Gang" in perspective, doesn't it?
Update:
Welcome, Anklebiters!
Take a gander at this.
The American Conservative Union and Americans for Democratic Action provide bellwether ratings for each member of Congress as to how conservative or liberal they are based on a 100-point scale. The graph belows shows the distribution of the Democrats in blue and Republicans in red. Ken Salazar has no legislative record as of yet and so is not included:
The table below was used to generate the plot:
Digging into the data, we should note that the Democrats consist of 4 diehard liberals (Byrd, Inouye, Lieberman and Landrieu all have ADA ratings 75 or greater) and 1 moderate (Ben Nelson, who has ADA <=75 and ACU >= 25).
The Republicans have 2 diehard conservatives (Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Graham have ACU scores > 75), 5 moderates (McCain, Warner, DeWine, Snowe, and Collins who have ADA >= 25 and ACU <= 75), and 1 liberal (Chafee, of course).
Put another way, Ben Nelson's the only real moderate in a very liberal Democrat group, while the Republicans mustered only 2 conservatives for their side. Only 6 out of the 14 can be considered moderate, and 5 of these are Republicans. Yet the LWM manages to paint this group as "moderates" all.
Kind of puts conservative complaints about "The Gang" in perspective, doesn't it?
Update:
Welcome, Anklebiters!
posted by Teflon at 6:20 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Teflon,
Point well taken, but the final analysis may be more ominous than you paint it. There is, afterall, a "Jeffords' factor.
For Republican Gang members who are also lawyers, it is necessary to add 9 to their ADA scores and subtract 18 from their ACU scores. (e.g. Inouye's adjusted scores are both off the scale: -10, ACU; and 109, ADA). John Warner gets a 54, ACU; and 34 ADA. History has and will continue to bear out the Jeffords factor (Senate LAWYERS refer to this little thing as collegiality. - Lawyer Kickers pro bono
Post a Comment
<< Home