I laugh a pinko laugh. The most liberal U.S. Senator ratings are just out and Barack Obama heads the list. As regular readers know, I don't find him left enough. In fact, if he is the most liberal in the Senate, we need even more serious replacements than I feared.
The ratings come from the National Journal, which pegs itself as a non-partisan source. Its readers include Washington insiders like politicians and policy wonks.
The gotcha-minded Republicans love this stuff. You can be positive that if Obama is the eventual nominee, we'll hear tons about his relative Marxism. At least the Dems know what kind of lunacy to expect and be prepared for it.
Amusingly enough, some on the list are also snorting. According to CNN, John Kerry is fairly hooting at being ranked more liberal than fellow Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.
They have been doing this since 1981. They base it on key votes on crucial issues — 99 votes on economic and social issues in the current list.
This time, Obama came out with an 88.0 liberal score for first place. Hillary Clinton was 16th most liberal with 79.4%.
Tags: massmarrier, National Journal, liberal, Obama, primary, Clinton, Democrats, ratings
1 comment:
Obama was with the New Party in Chicago. Carl Davidson who organized the now famous peace demo Obama spoke at writes of Obama soliciting their support.
In the sense of being hooked closely to what's left of the Marxist left in the US, Obama is closer than most US pols.
Obama's reality best captured though today in Salon,
Obama's dealings with his hinky friend have never led him afoul of the law, but they show that, despite his high-minded politics, he was no purer -- or no savvier -- than Illinois' biggest hacks in his weakness for a generous contributor. He wouldn't even say no when Rezko cooked up a deal to help the newly elected senator buy a gracious Georgian-revival home.
Rezko, after all, built part of his fortune by exploiting the black community that Obama had served in the state Senate, and by milking government programs meant to benefit black-owned businesses. But Obama took Rezko's money even after the businessman was sued by the city of Chicago for failing to heat his low-income apartments, and even after Rezko was caught using a black business partner to obtain a minority set-aside for a fast-food franchise at O'Hare Airport.
Now Rezko is wearing an orange jumpsuit. And Obama may spend the rest of the presidential campaign wearing the jacket for his friendship with the fixer.
That's the real Obama we know in Chicago (Davidson the old SDSer knows too) and it's a story that will slowly unfold over the months.
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