WTF? Russ Feingold 55th most liberal member of the Senate?

[Ardent15]

I thought he was a lot more liberal than that.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2009voteratings/

[Union Yes]

1. We'd have Single Payer if that were true. nt

[JI7]

2. no surprise to anyone who watches how he votes

[midnight]

3. Ya... He was the only one to vote against the Patriot act.... Can you imagine that?

He cares more about our civil liberties than anyone else did. Thank you Mr. Feingold I will always be so grateful for that vote.....

[stray cat]

14. Feingold actually reads the bills so he voted against the Iraq war and patriot act

unlike the "more progressive elements of the party". He also is a strict consitutionalist and fiscally responsible also unlike his "more progressive colleagues"

[angelicwoman]

4. Don't pay attention to National Journal

They're a right-wing rag that attaches the word "liberal" to Democrats who are not so liberal. Their goal is to use the demonized L word against moderates or semi-liberals who dread it.

[Ardent15]

5. Ah, ok.

Thank you for that. I had a feeling something wasn't right here.

[frazzled]

6. I think you're thinking of National Review, not National Journal

Russ Feingold is something of a libertarian left at times, which makes him sometimes more in line with the libertarian right. These rankings go strictly on votes in a given Congressional session. If there were one vote, say on Health Care Reform, and a vote for the House health care bill was considered a liberal vote, then Dennis Kucinich gets a 0 for liberal ranking when he votes against it.

[WatchWhatISay]

10. They pick their goal, then pick the questions

That is how they always manage to have the Democrat with the best chance of winning the party nomination also just happen to be the one who they choose as most liberal. They picked 10 votes that Obama voted yes on, but nobody else voted yes on all of them. No matter what the vote involved, they determine that a yes vote indicates liberalism. I believe they also chose Kerry and Gore as having the most liberal voting records when they ran for President.

They just change the criteria to fit the requirements they need. So in order to prove them wrong, you'd have to prove their criteria was wrong. Because its subjective that is harder to do, and the general public doesn't usually know better.

[OHdem10]

7. I have heard you have to know the time period the Journal used.

Let's say it is over 3 months. You have to know which
laws , resolutions were passed during that period.
I can remember when a Conservative was listed as
liberal. It was only measuring a handful of pieces
of legislation but he measured pretty high.

This does not measure their whole record on all kinds
of legislation. A lot of war legislation and measures
and not much else does not give a complete picture of
the person.

[angelicwoman]

8. He is among the most liberals

NJ said Obama was the most liberal of all last year. Go figure.

[KingFlorez]

9. Scores like this vary from year to year

The scores are tabulated based on votes throughout the year, it's not an overall score of ideology, just for the previous year.

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen

They're literally putting Feingold to the RIGHT of Lieberdouche and Blanche WalMart???

On what planet?

[BR_Parkway]

12. All I know is whoever the frontrunner for POTUS is will always be labeled

the most liberal in Congress - no matter who.

[stray cat]

13. Russ believes in fiscal responsibility - anathema to many progressives

He also puts the constitution at least equal to but likely above party politics

[undeterred]

15. +100