Heroes and Villains
Want to know who conservatives dig and who they think is a drag? The American Conservative Union has released its
2006 Congressional ratings. An article at Human Events lists the
"top ten most conservative House members" as judged by the ACU. Numero Uno is
Mike Pence (R-IN). He gets the nod by virtue of seniority: Scott Garrett (R-NJ) shares Pence's lifetime 100% ACU rating. Other "standouts" in the House include:
- Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
- Trent Franks (R-AZ)
- Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Hensarling is the new chair of the House's right-wing caucus, the Republican Study Committee. I'm a little surprised not to see
Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the top ten (He scored 'only' 92% for 2006).
And the Senate standouts are:
- Tom Coburn (R-OK)
- Jim DeMint (R-SC)
- John Ensign (R-NV)
- James Inhofe (R-OK)
- John Thune (R-SD)
I haven't combed through all the results, but I note that Gene Taylor (MS), commonly considered one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, earned a 68% rating for 2006. In the Senate, Ben Nelson (NE) was rated the most conservative Democrat with a 64% score - signficantly higher than "liberal" Republicans like Susan Collins (ME) (48%), Arlen Spector (PA) (43%), Olympia Snowe (ME) (36%), and newly-ex-Senator Lincoln Chaffee (RI) (24%).
The most evil liberals? In the House: Baldwin (D-WI), Evans (D-IL), Meehan (D-MA), Schakowsky (D-IL), Sires (D-NJ) and Watson (D-CA). In the Senate: Akaka (D-HI), Feinstein (D-CA), Kennedy (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Mikulski (D-MD), Sarbanes (D-MD). I'm surprised that Feinstein, not Boxer, was the California Senator with the more liberal rating.
ACU Vice-Chairman Donald Devine has an
overview of the results. According to his organization's ratings, 2006 was a less ideological year than previous ones had been:
The year 2006 was not only a loss for conservatism in the election but in Congressional voting too. It is reasonable to assume the two were related. Fewer members of either the House of Representatives or Senate voted conservatively than in any recent Congress. Liberal voting went down too. Congress moved to a mushy middle that apparently did not appeal to the voters, who turned out the majority party in a search for a coherent and principled course of action.
In other words, Devine repeats the post-election conservative mantra: Republicans lost because they weren't conservative enough.
But hey, it's his
job to say stuff like that.
Labels: American Conservative Union, Congress, conservatives