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Liberally Applying "Most Liberal" Label (7/27)
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.
President Bush regularly features the accusation as part of his stump speech. On July 20, for example, he stated that "Senator Kerry is rated as the most liberal member of the United States Senate. And he chose a fellow lawyer, who is the fourth most liberal member of the United States Senate. Now, in Massachusetts, that's what they call balancing the ticket." And on July 7, for example, the Boston Herald splashed the headline "They're Left of Ted [Kennedy]!" across its front page along with pictures of Kerry and Edwards.
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.
Yet the charge continues to circulate. Commentators who have repeated the "most liberal" label without sufficient context in the last three weeks include Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel, Cosmos Macero Jr. in the Boston Herald, the editorial boards of the Washington Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bush-Cheney campaign manager advisor Ken Mehlman on CNN's "Inside Politics," Republican strategist Mathew Dowd on "Tim Russert" on CNBC, and Jim Angle on "Fox Special Report with Brit Hume." "Most liberal" is now a contender for most the most misleading label of Campaign 2004.
http://www.spinsanity.org/
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.
President Bush regularly features the accusation as part of his stump speech. On July 20, for example, he stated that "Senator Kerry is rated as the most liberal member of the United States Senate. And he chose a fellow lawyer, who is the fourth most liberal member of the United States Senate. Now, in Massachusetts, that's what they call balancing the ticket." And on July 7, for example, the Boston Herald splashed the headline "They're Left of Ted [Kennedy]!" across its front page along with pictures of Kerry and Edwards.
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.
Yet the charge continues to circulate. Commentators who have repeated the "most liberal" label without sufficient context in the last three weeks include Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel, Cosmos Macero Jr. in the Boston Herald, the editorial boards of the Washington Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bush-Cheney campaign manager advisor Ken Mehlman on CNN's "Inside Politics," Republican strategist Mathew Dowd on "Tim Russert" on CNBC, and Jim Angle on "Fox Special Report with Brit Hume." "Most liberal" is now a contender for most the most misleading label of Campaign 2004.
http://www.spinsanity.org/
