Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Making it really simple for the NRSC

Since the National Republican Senatorial Committee seems to have trouble making a distinction between bed-wetting socialists, RINOs and conservatives, I thought I'd make it a bit easier for them. I've taken the latest ratings I could find from several conservative organizations and averaged them out so even the nitwits over at the NRSC can figure it out.

Averaged are the NTU's ratings for the 110th Congress, the ACU's 2008 Senate vote ratings, the Club for Growth's 2008 congressional scorecard, and the CAGW's 2008 Pig Book data. I had to make two minor adjustments. The first was for John McCain, who wasn't rated by the NTU for his failure to actually show up and vote. In order to give him the benefit of the doubt, I substituted McCain's '92 to '07 averaged NTU ratings. As CAGW wasn't able to score Senate votes for Roger Wicker, I used his most impressive House votes for the same year.

While I've labeled the bottom third as liberal, the middle third as squishy and the top tier as conservative, there are no real bragging rights here as the "conservative" bar has been lowered to below the knees for the past few years. To be considered squishy in 2008 is akin to being Benedict Arnold in 1780.

Here are data possibly easy enough for even John Cornyn to understand:


StateMemberRatingAverage



Alabama SESSIONS squishy71.00



Alabama SHELBY squishy57.75



Alaska MURKOWSKI squishy62.75



Alaska STEVENS liberal33.25



Arizona KYL conservative87.50



Arizona McCAIN squishy70.00



Colorado ALLARD conservative83.50



Florida MARTINEZ liberal52.25



Georgia CHAMBLISS squishy62.75



Georgia ISAKSON squishy62.75



Idaho CRAIG squishy64.25



Idaho CRAPO conservative81.25



Indiana LUGAR squishy55.75



Iowa GRASSLEY liberal52.25



Kansas BROWNBACK conservative73.00



Kansas ROBERTS conservative74.00



Kentucky BUNNING conservative87.50



Kentucky McCONNELL squishy58.50



Louisiana VITTER squishy69.75



Maine COLLINS liberal39.00



Maine SNOWE liberal29.75



Minnesota COLEMAN liberal38.00



Mississippi COCHRAN liberal48.50



Mississippi WICKER liberal54.50



Missouri BOND liberal48.50



Nebraska HAGEL squishy66.75



Nevada ENSIGN conservative82.50



New Hampshire GREGG conservative72.75



New Hampshire SUNUNU squishy66.75



New Mexico DOMENICI liberal45.50



North Carolina BURR conservative72.00



North Carolina DOLE liberal49.50



Ohio VOINOVICH liberal47.25



Oklahoma COBURN conservative92.00



Oklahoma INHOFE conservative79.00



Oregon SMITH liberal32.50



Pennsylvania SPECTER liberal36.50



South Carolina DeMINT conservative98.00



South Carolina GRAHAM squishy63.75



South Dakota THUNE conservative79.50



Tennessee ALEXANDER squishy60.00



Tennessee CORKER conservative75.25



Texas CORNYN squishy67.00



Texas HUTCHISON liberal55.50



Utah BENNETT squishy56.00



Utah HATCH squishy68.25



Virginia WARNER liberal35.25



Wyoming BARRASSO conservative91.00



Wyoming ENZI conservative91.00



14 comments:

  1. This is an excellent piece of work; I wish I could save it for future reference!

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  2. I averaged the values for the three categories and they come out to:
    84: Conservative
    65: Squishy
    44: liberal

    So the mean we get is squishy senators! Really? Is that the best we can do?

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  3. Wow, I wouldn't have guessed Kit Bond was liberal. I figured him for a squish.

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  4. Can I suggest one more column for the year they are coming up for re-election (or defeat in this case.)?

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  5. 16 identified as conservative -which relly leaves 84 against conservatist values , depending upon which way the RINO wind is blowing. We need much more than a comeback -we need a revolution, however, the young soldiers are all in the enemy camps. I think we are reduced to just prayer -politics as a means of the proper life has failed. Ignorance -emeotion -propaganda -payoffs -envy -and lustful hedonism have been too much to overcome and the trend is negative.

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  6. Okay, maybe i'm a little bit confused on two issues:

    1) I use Jeff Sessions {AL} (as he's one I had pegged as a stronger conservative) for example #1

    Sessions shows:
    74% (NTU)
    84% (ACU)
    84% (Club for Growth)
    #42 out of 100 (Porkbusters)..so.. he's only at 58%(I think if i read this right)?

    So porkbusters drops Sessions from a conservative (well over the 73% cutoff to a squishy, all by itself?).. Yes, that $158M in projects is a lot (and I have a LOT of respect for CAGW), but to drop him from a conservative to a squishy by that much? (

    2) Bunning... okay, someone please tell me why the RNC and the NRSC are trying so hard to push him out.. and why SO many Kentuckians aren't complaining that he's not being "forced" out of the seat?

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  7. Big Ben 4 libertyMay 19, 2009 at 6:52 PM

    Mark s. as a Kentuckian it is because Bunning is getting old and not quite using the best judgment when statements. That is there is faction of the Kentucky GOP upset that he endorsed former governor Ernie Fletcher's primary opponent (former Rep. Anne Northup) in the 2007 gubernatorial primary.

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  8. I think this averaging mechanism is better than looking at individual ranking systems. I'd make some improvements to this one, but I think it's a very good start.

    On Sessions, I was only sort of surprised. He did spend quite a bit of time pushing the Bush agenda, but he's also surprisingly good at times.

    I suspect his scoring will be one of the best next year, though.

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  9. I did save it...copied to word.

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  10. My boy DeMint sitting pretty with a 98, love it

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  11. Mike Johanns is the new senator for Nebraska replacing Hagel.

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  12. Wow, i didn't know DOMENICI and Dole were still Senators. That has to really suprise the two democrats that defeated them.

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  13. "Can I suggest one more column for the year they are coming up for re-election (or defeat in this case.)?"

    Since I've got a spreadsheet started, I'm working on a more permanent internet solution for posting the data.

    "Wow, i didn't know DOMENICI and Dole were still Senators. That has to really suprise the two democrats that defeated them."

    Thanks for the snark. Funny! :)

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  14. I'm looking for people who are willing to share their opinions and grade Senator Burr on his performance. If you are familiar with Richard Burr, or willing to look up his positions on the issues you care about, please submit a grade here:

    http://GradeBurr.com

    ReplyDelete