I love Russ Feingold: More liberal than John Kerry in a not-as-liberal state

[Lionheart23]

A strong case can be made that Russ Feingold (D-WI) is the most liberal Senator in the United States.
If there are more liberal than him, those will be very few. My analysis is based on measures of ideology conducted by prestigious websites. Here's my analysis:

I love both Kerry and Feingold. However, one of them needs to be defended against myths of not being some sort of Conservative traitor, based on the vague "party line" statistic. Here is Mr. Feingold's ideology in the Left-Right spectrum As illustrated by the independent ontheissues.org website, which is not just any site. It is owned by Naomi Lichtenberg, MA Columbia University, PhD Indiana University, and It is based on a compilation of actual votes:



Compare to John Kerry, from one of the most progressive States in the nation:



In fact, Mr. Feingold is as another idol of mine, Ted Kennedy, whose ideology is represented here:



Still not convinced, take a look at this ranking of Senators from the 110th Congress from Voteview.com, a website ("affiliated with the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia") #1 being the most liberal, and the last being the most conservative:

http://www.voteview.com/sen110.htm

Feingold is #1, with Demint, a Republican, at dead last. Russ Feingold is listed as being more liberal than...Bernie Sanders! Also more liberal than Kerry, Ted Kennedy (!) and everyone else. And yet some wants to tell us that Feingold is some sort of Conservative. I hope you guys enjoyed my fact-based analysis in defense of a liberal hero.

If you are going to cite the number of times that Feingold voted with the Republicans, please state the nature of the bill. For example, Feingold once coincided with the Republicans in a bill that, "Supported a ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees held by U.S. forces and to requires the military to follow the Army field manual for interrogations." If you conaider that a bad thing simply because most Republicans happened to endorse it, then you are not engaging in serious analysis.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/senate/1/votes/249/

[sandnsea]

1. I think Feingold is citing his own Republican support

For his own campaign.

Isn't that correct?

[Lionheart23]

2. That is correct. Now please give me graphs and votes

Thanks. Do you think these websites are wrong?

You can also give me interest group ratings, for example. How many conservative groups does Feingold historically side with? How many does he not side with?

[sandnsea]

3. Feingold touts Republican support

It's what HE wants to do. It's how HE is presenting himself. Go argue with him, not DU for complaining about the way he's portraying himself.

[Lionheart23]

4. but can't you give me an analysis based on his past votes?

Based on Feingold's vote history, how conservative do you think Feingold is?

Is voteview's methodology flawed? Why is he ranked as the least conservative of all?

If Feingold is not playing politics by pandering to conservatives in order to win an election, then it should be easy for you to explain how conservative Feingold is. Do you have, say, conservative Interest Group ratings for Feingold? Liberal Interest Group ratings?

[sandnsea]

6. I Don't Care

It's Feingold's political campaign strategy. I think it sucks. The person who posted the thread about his campaign strategy thinks it sucks too.

Regardless, this is what Feingold is saying about himself. Is HE a liar?

[blm]

9. seems to me you should ask Russ and his campaign for THEIR analysis that informed THEIR campaign

to employ the 'conservative' boast tactic that is being criticized here.

[Unvanguard]

5. Try voteview's data for the 111th Congress.

http://www.voteview.com/sen111.htm

Note, specifically, http://www.voteview.com/feingold.htm

[Rhiannon12866]

7. K&R! Great post! Feingold was also alone in voting against the Patriot Act...

Because he read the bill! :patriot:

Welcome to DU, Lionheart23! It's great to have you with us! :toast:

[EFerrari]

8. Russ Feingold reminds me of the party I grew up in.

So does John Kerry.

[politicasista]

11. And he is a liberal saint

while those that have similar records get trashed daily along with the president. Not hating on Feingold though.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. I agree. Things used to not be so partisian...

And "Liberal" wasn't a pejorative. There used to be "liberal Republicans!" (Nelson Rockefeller, for example...) :(

[Scuba]

10. Please help Russ help us....

...he is facing a tough election against a far-right-winger with very deep pockets. Tea Party candidate Ron Johnson has vowed to spend his entire fortune to get elected.

We need more like Russ. Please help.

www.russfeingold.org


thanks,

Scuba