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Brent Bozell for President!
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Contributors to this thread:
joshuaf 04-Jul-15
joshuaf 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
joshuaf 04-Jul-15
Salagi 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
slade 04-Jul-15
joshuaf 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
joshuaf 04-Jul-15
Owl 04-Jul-15
slade 04-Jul-15
gflight 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
HA/KS 04-Jul-15
From: joshuaf
04-Jul-15

joshuaf's Link
This article is awesome, and shows what a charade so many Republicans in Congress have been carrying on once they were safely elected and away from the eyes of their average constituent. Break out the pitchforks. I've bolded what I thought were a few particularly biting sections in the article. And we wonder why, after the voters swept more Republicans into power in 2014, nothing is getting done except Obama's onward march to "transform America".

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/02/exclusive-foramericas-brent-bozell-congress-an-unholy-mess-most-republicans-are-really-democrats/

EXCLUSIVE: ForAmerica’s Brent Bozell: Congress an ‘Unholy Mess,’ Most Republicans are Really Democrats

by Brent Bozell III2 Jul 2015534 Every conservative who cares about the unholy mess known as Congress should visit conservativereview.com (CR) and examine the “Liberty Score.” Every liberal who wonders how conservatives view their elected leaders should examine it as well.

The “Liberty Score” is refreshingly (and painfully) honest, as opposed to other scorecards that have been known to be compromised. It separates the wheat from the chaff and the frauds from the champions. It tells you who the real conservative heroes are, who comes close, and who doesn’t deserve to be in the same sentence with that word.

It also blows the whistle on the charlatans who campaign for re-election as red-hot conservatives, having deceived their constituency by covering up a voting record that is anything but; after being rewarded with another term, they cynically proceed to betray voters yet again by returning to their liberal ways.

The voting analysis here is no meatball surgery. You cannot be more comprehensive than when you analyze 6,382 votes, selecting the top 50 for incumbents over a six-year period.

Let’s look at the Republicans in the Senate. “Liberty Score” tells you everything you need to know about the GOP majority – and what to expect from a body that almost universally champions itself as “conservative.” But the scores, pulled in June 2015, tell a different tale.

Start with the “A” grades, those with voting records between 90% and 100%. There is only one Republican – Sen. Mike Lee of Utah – who registers a perfect 100%. (Two others, Ben Sasse and David Perdue, also score perfectly, but they are brand-new and have cast only a handful of major votes.) There are only two other Republicans in the entire body who receive an “A” — Cruz (96%) and Paul (93%).

Three veterans and two rookies. That’s it for the conservative GOP “A” team.

Surely, then, the lengthy list of “B” grade conservatives will at least alleviate concerns, correct?

There are only four Republicans who merit a “B.” Tim Scott (88%) is the best, followed by Marco Rubio at a surprisingly weak 81%, Jeff Sessions at an equally head-scratching 80% and Jim Risch, also at 80%.

For me, that’s it. No one below this grade can qualify as a conservative. So there are seven veteran conservatives and two rookies – period.

The remaining are moderates or liberals. Their records do not lie. They do.

We drop to the “C”s and there are no fewer than 10 Republicans here. Some are real surprises: Jim Inhofe (79%), James Lankford (75%), and rookies Joni Ernst and Tom Cotton (both also at a worrisome 75%). The rest long ago deserted their conservative bona fides (Chuck Grassley, David Vitter, Mike Crapo) or never had them to begin with (Bill Cassidy, Dan Sullivan, Steve Daines).

Now to the charlatans—those who will tell the media, their constituents and their friends what committed conservatives they are and then do the opposite, over and over, when it comes time to vote.

They are the ones who despise the idea of the “Liberty Score.” It is the flashlight that found them cowering in the corner and has exposed them for all to see. These incumbents do not deserve re-election. They should be primaried and thrown out of Washington.

First, the seven who have compiled horrific “D” scores.

Jerry Moran (64%) and Richard Shelby (66%) are perhaps the ones who least claim conservative allegiances, so give them that. Mike Enzi (66%) has done a terrific job pulling the wool over the eyes of conservative Wyoming voters. John Cornyn (61%) has betrayed conservatives so many times I’m surprised they even let him return to Texas.

Then there are the two shockers. I wish they weren’t here because they are such monumental disappointments. Conservatives expected them not only to vote right but also to lead conservatives in the Senate. They excited the conservative movement when they arrived in Washington. Happy days were here again.

Ron Johnson at 69% must stop calling himself a conservative.

Pat Toomey is the man who brought the Club for Growth to national prominence as the one group that vowed not just to support only conservative Republicans, but also to aggressively challenge impostors. Sadly, the Club needs to consider challenging its former boss. At 64%, Toomey is a conservative in name only.

Finally, to the GOP disgraces, the men and women who may as well be Democrats, except Democrats are more intellectually honest.

In the “F” category you’ll find the rogues. Every single one, with the possible exception of Thom Tillis (50%) and Mike Rounds (25%), both freshmen, needs to go.

Deb Fischer (58%) and Jeff Flake (40%) owe their elections to the Tea Party. Theirs was blatant false advertising.

Some have been here so long, utterly violating the spirit of the Founders, they’ve long forgotten – or stopped caring about – what their constituents want. John McCain has been in Congress 32 years, Pat Roberts 34 years, Orrin Hatch 38 years, and Thad Cochran 43 years. That is truly obnoxious. Their conservative voting records – 45%, 57%, 54%, and 33% respectively – are even worse.

Then there are the blatant hypocrites, those who so predictably and cynically wrap themselves with the conservative flag when facing the voters only to laugh and rip it to shreds the moment they succeed at what can be described only as a political con.

We know who we’re talking about. It’s the same story, one election cycle after the next. It’s Hatch and McCain. It’s Richard Burr (51%). It’s Dan Coats (49%). It’s Lindsey Graham (49%). It’s Johnny Isakson (42%). It’s Roy Blunt (39%). It’s Roger Wicker (32%).

The rest – Portman, Heller, Thune, Corker, Boozman, Ayotte, Kirk, Hoeven, Gardner, Rounds, Capito, Alexander, Murkowski, Collins – might as well be Democrats. Someone tell me of a single conservative cause any one of them has ever championed in the United States Senate.

To put things in their proper perspective: There are eight Republicans whose voting records are, at best, only 15 points higher than Bernie Sanders (14%), the body’s only Socialist.

And there are more Republicans with an “F” rating – 28 of them — than all other grades combined.

And leading this charge? Mitch McConnell (54%). The Republican Majority Leader ranks an “F.”

How many times do you think these scoundrels have promised to defund Obamacare, stop executive amnesty, cut the size of government, balance the budget, secure the border, cut taxes, end the funding of Planned Parenthood, PBS, the NEA and God knows what else, honor the Constitution, rebuild our national defenses, end abortion, restore prayer in school, and blah, blah, blah. How many TV ads? Radio ads? Speeches? Press releases? Facebook and Twitter posts?

It is fashionable to say that these Republicans have surrendered their conservative principles. Not so. As the record – not the rhetoric, the record – shows, the overwhelming majority aren’t conservatives, and many were never conservatives.

From: joshuaf
04-Jul-15

joshuaf's Link
Here's a link to the Liberty Score site to see the scores for all members of Congress.

https://www.conservativereview.com/scorecard

Our illustrious leaders:

Mitch McConnell - 52% John Boehner - 35%

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15
I want to see the "50 important issues" and how they determined what was the right way to vote. I looked at the links and could not find it. Can you direct me to that information?

From: joshuaf
04-Jul-15

joshuaf's Link
I'm not sure what the "50 important issues" are.

Here is an interesting link showing their profiles on the announced Presidential candidates, although they don't have Trump on there yet, not sure why, maybe because he's not a politician and doesn't have a voting record. I'll be interested to see what their rating system shows about Scott Walker. So far, Ted Cruz is pretty much lapping the field with their rating system, while Lindsey Graham and Carly Fiorina are duking it out to see who wins for the worst rating, with Grahamnesty narrowly edging her out. Jeb Bush comes in at 3rd worst.

Yep, sounds about right.

https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-Presidential-Candidates

From: Salagi
04-Jul-15
I'd like to know what the 50 important issues are also. They scored one of our senators at 50% and on what I would see as important issues he should score way higher than that.

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15
My thoughts too, Salagi. Something not so "transparent" about this. Neither of my senators are 100% IMO, but really?

For the most part, important issues lately have had very divided votes along party lines, but according to this many republicans are just 15% higher that bernie sanders. The fact that they also do not have him at 0% seems strange to me.

I saw that you could "register" to get more access to their information. Uh huh!

Think there might be an agenda here?

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15

HA/KS's Link
I still want to see their methodology.

From the link: In a move that’s likely to cause heartburn for the GOP establishment and Democratic Party, a band of hardcore conservative politicos have grouped together to form a new scorecard and rating system for members of Congress.

From: slade
04-Jul-15
Nice to see someone/someone's trying to do something besides whine wolf/fire blatherskite. I hope they are legit.

From: joshuaf
04-Jul-15
"Think there might be an agenda here?"

Only agenda I can see is to hold GOP politicians' feet to the fire.

By the way, I don't know anything about Senator Moran, but I don't think anyone has ever accused Pat Roberts of being a Conservative, have they? Wasn't that long ago he was in a serious re-election fight with a Democrat masquerading as an Independent.

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15
Most of the measures I have seen have had Roberts in the 90% conservative vote range.

I still want to see how they did the scoring.

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15

HA/KS's Link
I have been disappointed in Roberts a number of times. I have never supported him financially. However, in general he does vote fairly conservatively.

From the link:

August 5, 2014 If Sen. Pat Roberts wins reelection, conservatives will have a senior lawmaker with a 93 percent Heritage Foundation score poised to lead powerful and influential committees. Think that's enough for the Tea Party Patriots, Madison Project, or Senate Conservatives Fund? Well, think again.

Those groups are funneling what's left of their resources to Roberts's primary challenger Milton Wolf, a 43-year-old second cousin of President Obama who has no political experience but declares himself to be "the next Ted Cruz."

From: joshuaf
04-Jul-15
Do you happen to have a link showing the Heritage Foundation's scores for all 100 Senators? I'd be interested to see what they show on all of them.

From: Owl
04-Jul-15
My rep, Dave Brat, scored 100%.

From: slade
04-Jul-15
My rep Rep. Jaime Turncoat Herrera Beutler scored a whopping 39%, she won her first term running as a tea partier and then flipped them all off.

From: gflight
04-Jul-15
Looks like they are based on other scoring methods but combine more years of data...

"The Liberty Score® grades members of Congress on the top 50 votes over the past six years. The rolling six-year window is a more accurate picture of a lawmaker's performance than traditional one or two-year scoring methods. Scores are determined by points earned divided by potential points. Voting with the conservative position earns 1 point, voting against the conservative position earns nothing. Missed votes are not included in a member of Congress' score."

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15
Until they reveal what votes they looked at and how they scored them, none of us have any way to gauge the accuracy of their data.

From: HA/KS
04-Jul-15
50 votes in 6 years is only 8 votes per year. That would allow for extremely selective scoring. It could make it more accurate, or more manipulable.

For one thing, senators had no chance to vote on any republican bill for most of that six year period.

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