Lies, Damn Lies and Incumbents

[Purveyor]

Sept 30, 2014 11:53 AM EDT
By Albert R. Hunt

Why has the incumbent senator voted with the unpopular president "98 percent of the time?" an outraged challenger asks.

In 2006, the charge was leveled at a Republican, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and the unpopular president was George W. Bush. The Democratic challenger, Bob Casey, won the seat.

This year, the refrain is being trotted out against Democratic senators in competitive races. In Virginia, the ads for the Republican challenger, Ed Gillespie, lambaste Democratic Senator Mark Warner for backing President Barack Obama 98 percent of the time. In North Carolina, the incumbent Democratic senator, Kay Hagan, is accused by her opponent, Thom Tillis, of backing the president 95 percent of the time. Crossroads GPS, the outside big money group run by strategist Karl Rove, says its 96 percent.

Regardless, these claims are as bogus today as they were when Democrats resorted to them eight years ago. The percentages are based on a Congressional Quarterly vote analysis. In 2013, CQ used 108 Senate votes, but more than 65 percent of those were nomination votes, in many cases routine events.

For example, Colorado Senator Mark Udall is accused of backing the president 99 percent of the time, even though he has been a tough critic of the administration on national security and secrecy issues. By comparison, Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas seems like a steadfast Obama foe. Pryor's Republican opponent, Tom Cotton, says the Democrat has backed the president on 90 percent of votes. Never mind that Pryor has voted against the president more often than any other Democratic senator in the past few years.

more...

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-09-30/lies-damn-lies-and-incumbents

[merrily]

1. Scott Brown "voted with Obama"

(whatever that means) about 80% of the time and he isn't even a Democrat. However, he has the, um, wherewithal to run against Shaheen, who is a Democrat, for voting with Obama 99% of the time. So riddle me that.

(As to Brown, I think his caucus simply let him vote with Dems when his vote would never possibly matter so that he could run for re-election in Massachusetts on how "independent" he supposedly was. However, since Warren beat him, his Massachusetts strategy (as I see it) is backfiring on him in New Hampshire.

Thing is Democrats cannot run away from their own votes. They should call the right on this stupid and substance-free percentage game they're playing. Tell them, Stop the numbers game. This is not fifth grade math. Voters are adults. Stop trying to dazzle them with percentages. Let's talk adult facts. Let me tell you how I voted and what my vote did for the people of my district/state and for the country in general."