Most Liberal Senator parsed

[roseBudd]

When A Rating Becomes A Talking Point

When the tabulations came in for 2003, John Kerry had the highest composite liberal score of any senator.

But there was an asterisk. As with other lawmakers who were running for president, Kerry missed a lot of votes in 2003 -- 37 of the 62 that were being used in the vote ratings. He didn't vote often enough to merit scores in the social-policy and foreign-affairs categories. (Under our system, a member has to participate in at least half the votes in a category to receive a score in that category.) He did cast enough votes (19 of 32) in the economic category to get a rating. On those votes, Kerry took the "liberal" position every time.

That was the basis for Kerry's receiving a composite liberal score for 2003 that was higher than any other senator's score.

Some critics of our rating system have questioned why Kerry should have gotten a composite score at all since he didn't vote enough to qualify for scores in two of our three categories. The answer, in a nutshell, is because that's the way we've done it in the past. Gary Hart, Al Gore, Paul Simon, Jack Kemp, and Jesse Helms are examples of members of Congress who have received composite scores from National Journal over the past 20 years even though they didn't vote enough to receive a rating in all three categories.



http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2004/0830nj_liberalratings.htm

[LiberalBushFan]

1. I wish Kerry himself would address the "most liberal senator"

He wouldn't even give the facts during the debate when Bush repeated it twice.

[liberal N proud]

3. Liberal is bad, HOW?

lib·er·al·ism ( P ) Pronunciation(lbr--lzm, lbr-)
n.
The state or quality of being liberal.

A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.
often Liberalism The tenets or policies of a Liberal party.
An economic theory in favor of laissez-faire, the free market, and the gold standard.
Liberalism
A 19th-century Protestant movement that favored free intellectual inquiry, stressed the ethical and humanitarian content of Christianity, and de-emphasized dogmatic theology.
A 19th-century Roman Catholic movement that favored political democracy and ecclesiastical reform but was theologically orthodox.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=liberalism&r=67

lib·er·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.

Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.
Liberal Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.

Tending to give freely; generous: a liberal benefactor.
Generous in amount; ample: a liberal serving of potatoes.
Not strict or literal; loose or approximate: a liberal translation.
Of, relating to, or based on the traditional arts and sciences of a college or university curriculum: a liberal education.

Archaic. Permissible or appropriate for a person of free birth; befitting a lady or gentleman.
Obsolete. Morally unrestrained; licentious.

n.
A person with liberal ideas or opinions.
Liberal A member of a Liberal political party.

[Octafish]

4. Agree 100-percent.

Instead of bringing up the "labels" rejoinder, Sen. Kerry should've clobbered the little turd from Crawford with something people could remember along the lines of:

"I'm proud of my voting record. If some see it as 'Liberal,' so be it. My party, the Democratic Party, has accomplished most of what makes American great -- from beating the Depression and winning World War 2 to starting public education and Social Security. A Liberal Democrat saw the importance of beating the Soviet Union to the moon and in the process we accomplished the impossible.Tell me, where were the conservatives on all of that?"

[roseBudd]

2. We must address it in LTTEs