Does anyone know where this "#1 & #4 Liberal" talking point comes from

[TheDonkey]

Where are the right-wingers pulling this fact from?
I have a right wing uncle who believes this is the sign of rapture, but I though I saw that it was a misleading figure (not surprising).

Does anyone know where these ratings come from and how accurate they truly are.

[emulatorloo]

1. one place is Americans For Democratic Action, a liberal group

They are for the right things, don't like bush

Here is where they gave Dem primary candidates lifetime scores, based on votes on issues detailed towards the lower part of the page

http://www.adaction.org/Campaign2004/2004PR_1/2004pr_1.HTM

Check out their homepage

http://www.adaction.org/

Kerry/edwards voting record:

http://www.adaction.org/KerryEdwardsVR.htm

Tell your uncle who cares about labels! Kerry/Edwards will do what's right for America. Then tell him that you think Cheney is the anti-christ. . .and Rush is poisoning the minds of good christians.

[struggle4progress]

7. The ADA rankings do NOT support the idea Kerry is the "most liberal" ...

... member of the Senate. If you examine Kerry's ratings for a number of years, he typically shows up in about the center of the Democratic pack, and Edwards shows up to the right of him.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Yes, from the National Journal and they are, in a word, gamed.

National Journal rankings for years 1999-2003 for Kerry and Edwards

2003: Kerry - 1st (96.5) Edwards - 4th (94.5)
2002: Kerry - 9th (87.3) Edwards - 31st (63.0) Edwards made the centrist list.
2001: Kerry - 11th (87.7) Edwards - 35th (68.2) Edwards almost tied with Lieberman.
2000: Kerry - 20th (77) Edwards - 19th (80.8) Rankings past 20 are not available nor are composite scores for all Senators, so Kerry is 21st or higher.
1999: Kerry - 16th (80.8) Edwards - 31st (72.2)

Average: Kerry - 12th (85.9) Edwards - 24th (75.7)

Above came from Andrew Sullivan; interesting, link no longer works. Try it again, as it appears to be working now. http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2004_07_11_dish_archive.html#108965768304201905

(The 2003 rankings for them both were based solely on votes on economic issues for Kerry and economic and social policy for Edwards--further skewing the outcome in the way the National Journal intended.)

More from Andrew Sullivan:

The NOMINATE system tracks all roll call votes, and rank orders Senators on a 1-100 scale. Kerry's ranking for the 108th? Tied for 24th--dead center of all Democrats. Edwards'? Tied for 19th. On a purely statistical basis, one has to at least consider a 146-vote sample to be superior to 30-odd votes. Anyhow, what about the 107th? Kerry 27th, Edwards 38th.

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/letters.php

________________________

As you can see, these statistics are being reported by Andrew Sullivan on his blog; he is no friend of the Democratic party, and supports Dubya, despite his divisive gay-baiting agenda.

[Darkamber]

3. Another point on this...

Not only are they using the 2003 as the only reference for their #1 and #4 rankings, and of course use Ted Kennedy's record as comparison, remember they were campaigning during that time.

The only times that Edwards and Kerry came back to vote were on close call issues. The votes that would have passed without any question and these are votes that Kennedy did vote on, Edwards and Kerry were not there.

If conservatives point out how liberal they are, point out that the GOP is only using their voting records from 2003 when they were both running for President and they should look at least the 4 year voting records. YOu might also point out that Edwards has been listed as a Centerist by the same group that list him as #4 liberal this year.

The GOP is trying to get it's base terrified of Kerry and Edwards because of bringing out this one year only voting record.

We need to counter this whenever you hear it on radio or Print or with your friends and associates.

[TheDonkey]

4. Thanks everyone for the info!

:)

[Hippo_Tron]

5. It's a crock of shit, I can name 6 off of the top of my head...

More liberal than Kerry.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Rapture???

It seems like RW will connect anything to a sign of the rapture.