The Most Liberal Senator

John Kerry is the most liberal senator who ever lived. Who ever *can* live. He is the platonic ideal of liberal and when he dies he'll be buried in the liberal section of the most liberal cemetery. How do we know he's so liberal? Because the National Journal says so.

In a recent story they re-emphasize that Kerry is the most liberal senator out there. Surely so liberal that Bush wasn't lying when he said last night:

"As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts."

To prove his point, here's the National Journal article list:

SENATOR (Year First Elected Or Appointed) -- Liberal Score
1. Mark Dayton, D-Minn. (2000) 90.3
2. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md. (1976) 89.4
3. Jack Reed, D-R.I. (1996) 89.3
4. Jon Corzine, D-N.J. (2000) 88.8
5. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. (1962) 88.6
6. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. (1992) 88.5
7. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa (1984) 87.6
8. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. (1996) 87.3
9. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. (1982) 86.2
10. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. (1974) 86.0
11. John Kerry, D-Mass. (1984) 85.7
12. Carl Levin, D-Mich. (1978) 85.5
13. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. (2000) 83.9
14. Patty Murray, D-Wash. (1992) 83.8
14. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. (2000) 83.8
16. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. (1986) 82.4
16. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. (1998) 82.4
18. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii (1990) 82.0
19. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. (2000) 81.0
20. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. (1992) 80.0
21. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. (1996) 79.8
22. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. (1980) 78.9
23. Tom Daschle, D-S.D. (1986) 78.8
24. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. (1984) 77.3
25. Joseph Biden, D-Del. (1972) 76.6
25. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii (1962) 76.6
27. John Edwards, D-N.C. (1998) 75.7
30. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. (1992) 70.9
37. Bob Graham, D-Fla. (1986) 64.7
39. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. (1958) 64.3
40. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. (1988) 64.1
48. Zell Miller, D-Ga. (2000) 35.0

OK, I'll admit, it's scary to think that Hillary is not as left wing as Kerry, but where's Bush and his oafs come off calling him to the right of Ted Kennedy and the most liberal?

It's because when the Republicans are losing, they need to tar the opponent as a liberal. They're like evil smurfs, except with the word "liberal," e.g. "He's so liberal liberal that he'd liberal his own mother."

Another reason why Bushoafs got this wrong was that they read the wrong list. On this page we see that the NJ used a strange ranking "...Is More Conservative Than __% Of The Senate" as opposed to using a voting record. The key to statistics is to understand that they are to reflect reality and mean something.