The "Most Liberal" Senator

[TheBigotBasher]

From the 2000 Election Campaign. Is Liarman still a Liberal or does being "Liberal" only count when running on the Presidential ticket?

Despite Senator Lieberman’s much more liberal than conservative voting record, network reporters and newspapers continued on Tuesday to refer to him a "moderate" and a "centrist." As detailed in the August 8 CyberAlert, Lieberman has earned a lifetime "Liberal Quotient" of 77 from the Americans for Democratic Action. In 1999, Lieberman was assessed 95 percent from the liberal group while the American Conservative Union (ACU) gave him a zero for that year, making him one of the Senate’s eight most liberal Senators in 1999. His lifetime ACU rating: a piddling 19 percent.

Monday night the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) put out a press release which asserted Lieberman is "a card-carrying tax-and-spend liberal." An excerpt of the August 7 release:

Lieberman’s Fiscal Record Falls Short of Rhetoric, Tax Group Study Finds: Gore’s VP Pick "Votes More Consistently for Big Government" than Image Suggests

...."When it comes to taxing and spending policies, Joe Lieberman’s record falls short of the rhetoric surrounding it," said NTU President John Berthoud. "Several of his stances on high-profile issues -- such as capital gains taxation and welfare reform -- have led to a national image as a fiscal moderate, but the details of his record reveal he is a card-carrying tax-and-spend liberal." For example:

-- In 1999 Lieberman posted a pro-taxpayer score of just 8% on NTU’s annual Rating of Congress, which includes every roll call vote affecting taxes, spending, debt, and regulation (144 Senate votes that year).

-- 19 of the Senate’s 45 Democrats compiled NTU Ratings that were stronger than Lieberman’s in 1999. The Connecticut lawmaker actually fared worse than well-known Senate liberals such as Paul Wellstone, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, and Chuck Schumer.

-- In 1992, NTU began issuing grades in relation to the scores reported in its Rating. In the past eight years, Lieberman has earned 6 "F" grades and 2 "D" grades.

-- From 1992 through 1999, Lieberman has voted against lower taxes and spending and for higher taxes and spending 3/4 of the time (an average of 76%).

END Excerpt

For the full press release, go to:
http://www.ntu.org/P0008LiebermanRatings.html

Nonetheless, on Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, Claire Shipman referred to "Lieberman’s conservative Democratic views."

Other examples:
-- Tuesday morning on CBS’s The Early Show Bryant Gumbel repeated a claim made by Democratic pollster Mark Penn: "As you noted, politically a centrist."

-- Tim Russert on Tuesday’s Today: "There's no doubt about it. Joe Lieberman is a centrist, moderate Democrat."

-- Anchor Forrest Sawyer on MSNBC’s The News with Brian Williams on Monday night, August 7: "The socially conservative, politically moderate Senator is being lauded by both Democrats and Republicans for his integrity."

-- The lead paragraph in the August 8 USA Today front page story by Laurence McQuillan tagged Lieberman "a political centrist."

-- The subhead over the August 8 Los Angeles Times story declared: "The political moderate is the first Jew on a major U.S. party ticket."

-- "Gore Chooses Centrist Conn. Senator as Running Mate," announced a jump page headline in Tuesday’s Washington Post. The headline over another article read: "Lieberman Mixes Moderate Politics, Moral Imperative." But deep in the latter story reporters Mike Allen and Amy Goldstein acknowledged Lieberman’s doctrinaire liberal views on key issues: "He has been a consistent supporter of abortion rights, gun control, environmental protection, minimum wage increases and other causes espoused by party liberals. But two issues -- school vouchers and tort reform -- have put him at odds with major constituencies within the Democratic Party, teachers and trial lawyers..."

-- "Senator Often Stands To Right of His Party," declared a Tuesday New York Times headline. But, as MRC Communications Director Liz Swasey observed, reporter David Rosenbaum's article noted how Lieberman has not actually made any specific proposal on an issue that supposedly showcases his moderate views: "On Social Security...Mr. Lieberman has never been faced with a vote on the matter and never made explicit what kind of investments he would allow and in what circumstances.