Here is a great refutation of the latest talking point of the Wingnut echo chamber.
A letter to Andrew Sullivan disputes his repeating the GOP line that, according to the
National Journal, Kerry and Edwards have the first and fourth most liberal voting records in the Senate:
"I'm growing a bit frustrated with the media, including you, running with this Kerry and Edwards being the first and fourth most liberal Senators. Everyone is citing the National Journal's ratings but they are doing it sloppily. I have seen no recent article that cites anything but the 2003 ratings where Kerry missed 37 and Edwards missed 22 of 62 votes and both were setting themselves up for primary battles where their base was essential. Think what you may about missing votes and pandering a bit (seems suicide to not do both when going for the nomination), but my larger point is the media should be looking at this much more historically and in years when Edwards and Kerry actually showed up to do their jobs. I'll do it for them. Following are rankings and liberal scores since 1999.
2003: Kerry - 1st (96.5) Edwards - 4th (94.5)
- : Kerry - 9th (87.3) Edwards - 31st (63.0) Edwards made the centrist list.
- : Kerry - 11th (87.7) Edwards - 35th (68.2) Edwards almost tied with Lieberman.
- : 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.
- : Kerry - 16th (80.8) Edwards - 31st (72.2)
Average: Kerry - 12th (85.9) Edwards - 24th (75.7)
Now this paints a different picture. Certainly Kerry is a stalwart liberal (although probably not or barely a top 10 liberal), but he does hail from and represent one of the most liberal states. But Edwards is definitely a moderate Democrat (if you define that as somewhere in the ideological middle of the Democratic platform).
Now, will this mean anything to the Stepford GOP? No. The chips implanted in the back of their necks have been programmed and unless we can find some way to hack into their metaphysical computer network, they will continue with this distortion. Nevertheless, I just thought you would all find it interesting to see how they twist facts and lie with glee. Nothing new here.