Rate your elected representatives

Great Debates
1

I’ll pick my two US Senators, US Representative and Govenor. I’m grading them on an A-F scale.

Sen John Coryn Grade F
For a Senator from a major state, Sen. Coryn has very little influence in the Senate. He is troubled with ethical problems. I find his views reprehensible and hope he decides to not run for reelection.

Kay Bailey Hutchison Grade D I greatly dislike her as a person, but she does have influence in the Senate.

Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson Grade C For someone who has been in the House since 1992, Rep. Johnson is a very minor member. However, being in the minority for most of those years may have contributed. Rep. Johnson’s views on the Iraq war are admirable, but unfortunately her views on the Wright Amendment represent the campaign money from American Airlines. I also believe she spends more time with the Congressional Black Caucus and not enough time representing the voters of Dallas.

Gov. Rick Perry Grade F Gov. Perry is a joke. He is the ultimate politician. He’s been called Governor Goodhair with good reason. His pandering to the religious right is despicable. The vetoes as well as his love for Tom Delay just demonstrates how useless he is. Unfortunately, he’ll be reelected.

2

funny, i think that the lack of replies on this post are kinda telling

i’m guilty of it, too. i don’t konw all the representatives and such for my own state…actually, scratch that. i know most, if not, all of them.

but it’s weird how people don’t care/pay attention to these things, especially when they ARE your link to Big Government.

3

Governor George Pataki ®, Senator Charles Schumer (D), and Senator Hillary Clinton (D) are all effective politicians who I think are doing a good job. My Representative, Sue Kelly (R-19th NY), on the other hand, could at best be described as average.

4

Sen. Wayne Allard - R. C-
Your basic run of the mill conservative Republican. He gets a higher vote than most conservative Republicans would from me because he’s honest and he looks out for the interests of the West.

Sen. Ken Salazar - D. B+
He’d be higher but for his newness. He’s showing every sign of being exactly what I want to see in my elected representatives - someone who votes for what he believes is right. Though I haven’t been pleased with all his votes, I’m delighted to have as one of my Senators someone who does not stick his finger in the wind before he takes a position.

Rep. Diana DeGette - D. C+
You basic run of the mill liberal Democrat. She’s bland - more interested in climbing the leadership ladder than in anything else. Anyone would have had a hard time filling Pat Schroeder’s shoes, but DeGette doesn’t even fill Schroeder’s flip-flops.

Gov. Bill Owens - R. B
Though I absolutely disagree with 90% of his positions, he has steadily grown into a conscientious governor. As with Salazar, he does what he thinks is right. His work in getting the de-Brucing of the state budget passed this past election was both brave and necessary.

I guess I’m lucky to live in Colorado. Though I may not agree politically with the people who work for me, they’re all honest and decent people. That counts for a lot in my book.

5

I’m not really pleased with any of my Government officials these days.

Most of them would get D+, with one glaring exception.

Russ Feingold is the greatest official ever to come out of Wisconsin, and while he’s way too liberal to succeed I hope to God that he follows through on his plans to run for president.

6

Of my elected politicians (names removed for their protection):

My State Assemblyman and State Senator both did fine jobs in their prior jobs (County Supervisor and State Assemblyman), but so far have not done much (they’ve only spent a year in their current positions).

My Congressman is a carpetbagger and not that good a politician (as his failed run for governor eight years ago showed), but his prior experince in Congress gives him clout, making him a push.

My Senators are mixed. One is one of the best on Capitol Hill, the other is a flamboyently inept lightweight who holds her current office largely due to her gender and good luck in the years she’s run for office.

As for my Governor… that will take time for me to comment.

7

The 52 electors who voted for John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004 did the best they could with what was before them. 5/5 for them

Senator Dianne Feinstein has become a symbol of what’s wrong with the Democrats and Washington (2/5), while Senator Barbara Boxer still gives me some hope(4/5).

I can’t say enough good things about Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (5/5).

Governor Arnold Scwarzenegger can kiss my curvy butt goodbye on his way out the door this November (0/5).

Headlines featuring appalling misdeeds of Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, Cal. Sec. of State Bruce McPherson, Controller Steve Westly,Treasurer Phil Anglelides, AG Bill Lockyer and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi are not coming immediately to my memory, so I’ll give them all the benefit of the doubt. (3/5 across the board)

Board of Equalization Chair John Chiang gets 0/5, because the Board still thinks that wealthy Orange county needs a lower state sales tax rate than LA County.

The only thing that sucks worse that Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell is the school system he oversees and his predecessor, former LA Mayor Dick Riordan. (1/5)

State Senator Alan Lowenthal showed up at my local park at 7:30 on a Saturday mnorning, and not only shared some kind words, but helped clean it, which is what we were all there for. He has my vote anytime. (5/5)

State Assemblyman Ron Calderon, sucks the fat one. (2/5, because I admit my opinion is based solely on the fact that I just don’t like or trust the guy, as opposed to specific misdeeds)

County Sherriff Lee Baca. Meh. (3/5)

District Attorney Steve Cooley. Eh. (2/5)

I’m about to remodel, which means LA County Assessor Rick Auerbach is going to raise my rates. Boo! (1/5)

LA County 4th District Supervisor Don Knabe On the one hand, the inhabitants of Manhattan Beach are being scared off by continued health threats from a recent sewage spill. On the other hand, Manhattan Beach is full of a bunch of overgrown frat boys anyway. (3/5)

Downey City Councilman-At-Large Kirk Cartozian talks an OK game, and he doesn’t deserve all the flak he gets, but I haven’t been happy with a lot of his recent votes. (2/5)

3rd District Coucilman Rick Trejo has simply become unresponsive due to being termed out at this point. (1/5)

The current Cerritos Community College Board of Trustees has only been recently elected, so I’ll withhold judgment for the time being (3/5)

The Downey Unified School District including Trustee Area 1 member Cheryl Andresen, has kept achievement higher than the state average. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. (3/5)

Los Angeles County Flood Control left the spreading grounds next to my neighborhood undrained for months after last year’s rains, free to breed mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus. Bastards. (0/5). You too, LA County Vector Control for doing nothing about it until the middle of the summer. (0/5)

We have a Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, who sells imported water to the Central Basin Municipal Water District (Edward Vazquez represents my division) to provide us with water so we don’t use up our local groundwater too fast. Of course, management of the groundwater is up to the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (shown is my rep, Pat Acosta), who also buys imported water because we ended up overtaxing our groundwater anyway, and the actual job of replenishing the water is left up to the above-lambasted LA County Flood Control and their non-draining spreading grounds. Someone needs to explain this clusterfuck to me in a way that makes sense, or else streamline it, and until they do, they get 0/5 from me, because our water is full of crap and tastes awful anyway.

And yes, with the possible exception of Flood and Vector control, we do have to vote for all these positions.

8

Senator John Warner is a great man. He has done wonderful things for the military, especially, both as Secretary of the Navy and as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

I don’t agree with all of his positions, but he is a great American.

Senator George Allen was a wonderful governor for our state, and has been a very good Senator. I’m backing him for a presidential run.

Representative Tom Davis is sometimes more moderate than I would like. However, he similarly is a good and decent man, and a very effective legislator. He personally shepherded legislation through the House that led to the revitalization of Washington, DC. For that alone, he should be considered a hero.

My governor is Tim Kaine. He is too new to judge fairly. I should mention that I did vote against him.

9

Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Barack Obama are two reliable liberal voices in the US Senate and are both opposed to the war in Iraq. I will give both of them Bs, because I wish they would seize the leadership vacuum reins of the Democratic party in Washington. For example, Obama recently complained that the tactic of attempting to filibuster Alito wouldn’t work because Democrats hadn’t convinced the American people that Alito was truly dangerous to their civil liberties. Yet what steps did Obama himself take to get this point across?

As for my Congressman, that would be Danny Davis (D). He gets a big fat F in my book ever since I saw a photo of him “crowning” the Reverend Sung Yung Moon in some bizarre ceremony about a year ago. :confused:

10

Congressman Tony Schnell gets three big thumbs up in my book.:smiley:

I have seen reports that over the years Congress has received over a million complaints concerning Schnell’s bill 602P to tax email which is quite a response since there was never such a bill nor such a congressman.

11

My local federal member of Parliament is a bloke called Joe Hockey. He’s currently the Minister for Human Services. He’s a reasonably good local member. I went to school with him though and I never thought very much of him as person.

12

HERB KOHL U.S. Senator(D) D

Russ Feingold U.S. Senator(D) F

James SensenbrennerCongressman® A-

Jim Doyle Governor (D) F-

Leah Vukmir Assembly representative ® A

Tom Reynolds State Senator ® A+

13

:smack: D’oh. I forgot. A property that I own (that I used to live in but now rent to my son) is just down the street and has all the same as the above but falls out of Jims congressional districe and into
that of Gwen Moore(D) F- - - - - - - - - - - -!!

14

San Francisco, here:

Nancy Pelosi, my member of Congress, is a fine progressive lawmaker of national stature – I haven’t kept up, is she still the Minority whip?

Senator Barbara Boxer rocks.

Senator Dianne Feinstein is a little cryptorepublican for my taste, but she’s centrist enough to garner some respect from both sides – I’d have liked to see her as a VP candidate, but I think she’s gotten too old and has lost her way, somehow.

Governor? Arnold Schwarzeneggar sucks rhino cock. Still, Pres. Bush sucks syphilitic rhino cock, so Arnie could be worse, I guess.

15

I laughed hysterically when I saw the title of the OP.

Well, I have Voinovich and DeWine as senators. That’s as close to an upside as I’ve got.

Governor? Bob Taft.

Representative? Bob Ney.

Someone just shoot me.

16

Georgetown, KY here.

State Senator Damon Thayer ® (2/5) - completely normal and boring.

**State Congressman (D) Charlie Hoffman (5/5) **- A great human being, one of only a few people in the state legislature who seem to actually care about the state. And he’s my butcher!

US Congressman Ben Chandler (D - Ky 6) (5/5) - If he decided to run for president (HIGHLY unlikely), I’d drop out of school to work for his campaign.

Governor Ernie Fletcher ® (0/5) - The sleaziest man in Kentucky. But at least he knows that Intelligent Design is:

God help us. :smack:

Senior US Senator Mitch McConnell ® (2/5) - I don’t really like him, but as the majority whip he’s been pretty good for KY. Then again, I hate seeing his name on every goddamned thing in this state.

Junior US Senator Jim Bunning ® (negative infinity/5) - Just a loathsome man. In 2004, while running for reelection, he said that Daniel Mongiardo (his opponent) “looked like one of Saddam Hussein’s sons” and implied several times that he (Mongiardo) is gay. Add that to the fact that he is staunchly anti-science, anti-worker, and anti-notbeingatotaldouche, and he is just a deplorable human being. We almost got rid of him in 04. Now I’ve got five more years of this ass.

**Bush administration (1/5) **- I wanted to give him a chance. But he has continued to disappoint me.

17

What do you think of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors?

18

Sen. Mel Martinez®: C- He actually was a terrific local pol here in Orlando. The Martinez Doctrine was a great idea; shame nobody has the stones to enforce it. But I was very disappointed with his senate campaign tactics, and now he looks like he’s going to be a status-quo pork-barrel mediocrity in the Senate.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D): C- Another mediocrity, just from the other party; a big-government Dem.

Rep. Ric Keller®: C- Pretty much your stock-issue cultural-conservative corporate-shill Sean Hannity Repub. Only redeeming feature is fiscal conservatism.

**Gov Jeb Bush ®: B- ** I despised his tactics in dealing with light rail in Orlando and he’s been a bit too quick to (insincerely, IMO) kowtow to the religious right (e.g. Schiavo). But all in all, I think he’s at least had the right idea i dealing with most issues. Solid performance during hurricanes. After his brother, he’ll never be President, and that’s a shame, as he is by far the better of the two.

19

Eleanor Holmes Norton gets an E for effort.

20

Gov. Ernie Fletcher - F. Singlehandedly showed that while Kentucky is chock full of flawed Democrats, the Republicans are far worse.

Sen. Mitch McConnell - F+. Made his name defending the role of big money in the political system. Gets the + because he surprised me with his consistency on “free speech” when he opposed his party on flag burning.

Sen. Jim Bunning - F-. His disgusting campaign against Dan Mongiardo erases any sympathy points he might have gained from his obvious senility.

Rep. Hal Rogers - D. I had lunch with Rep. Rogers several years ago, and the presence of many NO SMOKING signs in the building did not keep him from lighting up a cigar. If I were an obese Caucasian male member of Congress in an expensive-looking but out-of-style suit, I would not smoke cigars, for the same reason I’d give up donuts if I were a cop and I gave up golf when I became a doctor. Don’t be a stereotype. He only gets a D because he’s done a lot for eastern Kentucky, but he’s mostly unremarkable.

State Sen Dan Mongiardo - B. Should be in the US Senate. Showed some of the biggest testicles I’ve ever seen when he got up in front of the local medical society meeting and explained to them why he didn’t support caps on malpractice awards. (I was the only person in the room who agreed with him.) Gets graded down for some middle-of-the-road or outright conservative positions on such things as Iraq and gay marriage; then again, it’s the only way a Democrat is going to be elected around here, so it really has to be that way.

My state Rep, nameless since he lives across the street from me–I don’t know enough about his work in the legislature to grade him, but he’s a good guy, and I’m told he has done good things for the area.