I agree with those who say that Bean's vote for CAFTA was wrong, both for practical and ideological reasons.
But what I disagree with are those in Illinois who are ready to castigate her as being no better than the Republican she replaced.
See this? Now join me after the fold for the rest.
153 77.66 D IL Bean, Melissa L.
(
Cross posted at SoapBlox/Chicago)
Rank Pct Party State Name
3 96.57 D IL Schakowsky, Janice D.
8 94.42 D IL Jackson, Jesse L. Jr.
34 91.87 D IL Davis, Danny K.
38 91.24 D IL Evans, Lane
39 91.16 D IL Rush, Bobby L.
54 89.21 D IL Gutierrez, Luis V.
63 88.42 D IL Emanuel, Rahm
152 77.74 D IL Lipinski, Daniel
153 77.66 D IL Bean, Melissa L.
176 71.19 D IL Costello, Jerry F.
219 17.15 R IL Johnson, Timothy V.
225 14.46 R IL Kirk, Mark Steven
234 12.85 R IL Biggert, Judy
249 10.77 R IL LaHood, Ray
269 8.35 R IL Hyde, Henry J.
286 7.21 R IL Weller, Jerry
301 6.28 R IL Shimkus, John
316 5.59 R IL Manzullo, Donald A.
351 4.21 R IL Hastert, J. Dennis
That's Progressive Punch's rankings for the 109th Congress so far. No method of measuring the left-rightness of a public representative is going to be perfect, but theirs is a reasonable and valid one. The score indicates the percentage of the time in which each member votes with the "progressive" position, the "progressive position" being that taken by the six most liberal members of the Senate and the 36 most liberal members of the House.
The list above shows the Reps ranking among all 433 reps, then the percent of politically correct votes, then the party, state and name.
So does that tell us that Melissa Bean isn't "prgoressive" enough for Illinois. I don't think so. Remember, she has just turned around a previously Republican district. I think we need to complain much more about Jerry Costello and Daniel Lipinski who represent much "safer" Democratic districts.
Keep in mind that 77% is not so shabby, especially when compared with the 17% of the best Republican in Illinois.
I expect we will be putting these scores in our Illinois Political Atlas.