Spinsanity.org Debunks "Most Liberal Voting Record in Senate"

[JPZenger]

www.spinsanity.org

"Liberally applying "most liberal" label (7/27/04)
By Bryan Keefer

The Bush campaign and a number of conservative opinion writers have taken an assessment of John Kerry's voting record last year out of context in order to paint him as the most liberal member of the Senate...

But the National Journal's rankings were only for roll call votes in 2003 - a fact obscured by many in the press. And because Kerry and Edwards were campaigning for most of the year, their scores were based on substantially fewer votes than those of other senators. A more comprehensive analysis by University of Houston political scientist Keith Poole of all contested roll call votes they cast during the year found that Kerry and Edwards fall near the median among Senate Democrats.

The National Journal article announcing the magazine's rankings also noted that Kerry and Edwards were considerably less liberal for significant portions of their Senate careers. In fact, as scholars at the center-left Brookings Institute pointed out in a New York Times op-ed Monday, when considering all the votes they have cast over the course of their careers, Kerry and Edwards have been considerably less liberal than the National Journal rankings imply, The Brookings Institution scholars found that Kerry, while more liberal than the average Democrat, is "closer to the center of the Democratic Party than he is to the most liberal senators, including Mr. Kennedy." Edwards, by contrast, has cast votes that make his record slightly more conservative than the average Senate Democrat....

[RobertSeattle]

1. Awesome!

Also try:
http://mostliberalsenator.blogspot.com/

[JPZenger]

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