re: #760 TheMatrix31

Kerry Most Liberal Senator In 2003

This is from Fact Check regarding 2003:

The Journal did rank Kerry the most liberal senator for 2003, but it’s also true that Kerry missed 37 of the 62 votes on which the ranking was based due to his campaign schedule. So the Journal assigned Kerry a score only on economic policy for that year — “a perfect liberal score,” in fact. That was based on 19 Kerry votes, though he still missed 13 others on economic policy. The Journal didn’t rank Kerry’s votes on social issues or foreign policy for 2003 because he cast so few votes on those issues, but noted that he “consistently took the liberal view within the Senate” when he did vote on those issues.

To call Kerry the “most liberal man in the Senate” based on a single year’s rating is simply incorrect, however. Over his entire career, the Journal rates Kerry the 11th most liberal Senator. It’s doubtful that Kerry would have qualified for the “most liberal” label even during his first Senate term, when was rated #1 for three of the six years: 1986, 1988, and 1990. In each of those years Kerry actually tied for the “most liberal” rating, sharing it with as many as five other senators.

If you look at the 2007 ratings from National Journal you’ll see that Kerry was rated 20th most liberal.