The Conservative Index

Not that anyone with half a brain did not already know this, but it turns out that Republicans aren't conservatives. Indeed, some of them, like Tom DeLey, are raging socialists.

Just ask Laurence Vance. He wrote an excellent piece analyzing what the pesky Republican-controlled 109th Congress has been up to with our money. After describing much of the frivolous legislation that the Congress passed to swell the already behemoth government, Vance reviewed the The Conservative Index, published in The New American, which "rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, to fiscal responsibility, to national sovereignty, and to a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements."

The votes cast by congressmen on certain key issues are assigned a plus (good) or a minus (bad) by the publishers of the Index. Scores from 1 to 100 are determined by dividing a congressman’s plus votes by the total number of votes cast and multiplying by 100. Thus, the higher the number, the stronger the congressman’s commitment to the constitutional principles just mentioned. The overall average score for the two indexes prepared thus far for the 109th Congress is also given. [this article and post only deal with the current index, the score from which is in the left column]

Here are the highlights from the Index that Vance found worth mentioning.

• The average score in the House was only 30. The average score in the Senate was even worse – 21. Once again, the high score in the House (100) was made by Ron Paul (R-TX). The high score (if you can call it that) in the Senate (60) was once again made by John Ensign (R-NV), who was tied this time by James Inhofe (R-OK). Several representatives and senators were tied for the lowest score – 0.
  
• The Republican leaders in the Senate (Majority Leader Bill Frist [R-TN] & Majority Whip Mitch McConnell [R-KY]) both scored higher than their Democratic counterparts (Harry Reid [D-NV] & Dick Durbin [D-IL]), but what kind of conservatism does it take to score a 30? Ted Kennedy has scored higher than that before.
  
• The Republican House leadership did not fare as well. Outgoing Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) scored a 22, while Majority Whip Roy Blunt only managed a 20.
  
• The Democratic leaders in the House are ultra-right wingers compared to the Republican leaders. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) each scored a 40, as did the socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT). How many thousands of hours did you say that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Neal Boortz have wasted railing against the "evil" Democrats?

The House of Representatives is really bad. Check out Arkansas. All three House Democrats scored higher than the Republican from the State. The Mississippi Republicans are bigger communists than that state's Democrats; same with Nevada. Why do Nebraska and New Hampshire even bother calling themselves Republican when they are sending socialists to Congress? And you have to check out New York, the eternal Blue State. The Democrats are out-right-winging the Republicans.

An astute blogger posted a comment elsewhere that says it best -- "I think our '2' party system, is actually a '1' party system with 2 divisions: conservative and liberal. They don't even bother to cover it up: both parties operate exactly the same."

Vance's article and the Conservative Index only confirm this reality.