Paul Krugman did well in picking out Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler as a helpful guide to our media follies. Today, Battlin' Bob takes on the "Kerry as most liberal Senator" talking point. Bob may be left, but he's right - Kerry is not that liberal, and the Dems and media he cites are doing a miserable job of pushing back on this.
Oh, yes - I got there via Glenn, not Paul.
UPDATE: OK, Bob may be wrong (and I, too, but let's focus on Bob). Here is the Man Sans Q. Professor Bainbridge also questions the suitability of the Poole method, and draws a response. And Glenn has lots of links.
But if Kerry tracks closely with Wellstone, is it that far off to call him "liberal?" And Hannity correctly stated that he was "most liberal" in 2003 which is accurate... Somerby as usual is cherry-picking his data.
Also when will Krugman cherry-pick the most linked Somerby post of recent days and correct the Wilson record? That might be the act of a non-partisan pundit, and his followers claim he is that.
Posted by: HH | August 04, 2004 at 05:53 PM
Kerry's ADA rating is 92 over his entire career. That's slightly to the left of Ted Kennedy.
Further, both Kerry and Edwards have moderated their votes in the last year or two to look Presidential. So, Somerby has it completely backwards:
http://adaction.org/KerryEdwardsVR.htm
Kerry Edwards
Lifetime 92 81
2003 85 65
2002 85 70
2001 95 95
2000 90 85
1999 95 90
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | August 04, 2004 at 06:10 PM
I don't buy the "most liberal" thing, but as always with Kerry, his defenders can at most say what he is not, and dare not say what he is. In fact, many of the interest group scores over his career peg Kerry as quite liberal.
Posted by: Crank | August 04, 2004 at 09:13 PM
his defenders can at most say what he is not
He is not George Bush. I have only met one actual, live Kerry-booster, but he hates Bush more than I hated Clinton (no, really!), so it is hard to "dialogue" with him.
Posted by: TM | August 05, 2004 at 12:06 AM
Hmmm.
Considering the Kerry hasn't attended more than a handful of votes this year, does that skew the data?
LOL.
Posted by: ed | August 05, 2004 at 03:36 AM
Kerry may not be the "most" liberal Senator; but he is the junior Senator from Massachusetts, and their Congressional delegations (House and Senate) definitely fall into the liberal wing of the Democratic party.
The ADA tally makes Kerry look more conservative because of the number of votes he missed -- they count missed votes as votes against the liberal position.
I put the ADA scores for the Mass delegations from 1996 through 2003 -- with a rating correction to exclude missed votes -- in this post:
http://pherrett.blogspot.com/2004_05_09_pherrett_archive.html
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