US Senators, Where They Stand, and What they are

Great Debates
1

In the Liberal Media thread, there has been a disagreement over who is liberal/conservative/moderate/ultraliberal/ultraconservative etc. and i feel that we should break down the various Senators and try to determine who would be clasified as what. Since we will all disagree as to set definitions as to what is a ultraliberal vs vanilla liberal, we can argue that as we go along as well, and use the different politicians as examples. I am using the Senate because there are only 100 of them, they reach a larger group of people than a representative would, and many of them i have no clue as to who they are and what they represent. a list of senators can be found here, with links to their individual websites. Many of these people i know nothing about and need input on. did a google search for good sites that broke down the senate but was unable to find one that was updated or not single issue.
Akaka, Daniel - (D - HI) – i know nothing about him. He seems pro-military and pro-native rights, but i cannot determine his fiscal stance from his website.

Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN) – He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1996 and lost to Dole in the primaries. He was the flannel shirt guy. i considered him conservative, but a decent guy despite me disagreeing with some of his policies. Was a former governor.
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO) i know nothing about this guy, but if he is from Colorado i bet he is conservative.

Allen, George - (R - VA) – ialso no little about him as well

Baucus, Max - (D - MT) – nothing again

Bayh, Evan - (D - IN) --nothing again
Bennett, Robert - (R - UT) – nothing again

Biden, Joseph - (D - DE) – the name is familiar but i know little about the man. He does seem to be in the news alot.

Bingaman, Jeff - (D - NM) – don’t know much on him either, but his web page has some info in Navajo code talkers.

Bond, Christopher “Kit” - (R - MO) – I’ve actually met this one a few years ago. Not a big Clinton fan. I’d make him out as conservative as well. For term limits (despite being on his third term himself)
Boxer, Barbara - (D - CA) supporter of women’s rights, some tougher crime laws, higher fuel efficency bills, pension protection plans (before Enron). Would get labeled as liberal.

I’ll breakdown more in a little while (work is beckoning). Most of these people i know little about so anyone and everyone with more experience is welcome to help.

2

*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas *

Akaka, Daniel - (D - HI) – Liberal, nice guy

Alexander, Lamar - (R - TN) – Conservative, likes plaid

Allard, Wayne - (R - CO) – Conservative veterinarian

Allen, George - (R - VA) – Conservative

Baucus, Max - (D - MT) – Centrist, ran against one guy with blue skin and another who is a former hairdresser

Bayh, Evan - (D - IN) – Centrist, son of Sen. Birch Bayh

Bennett, Robert - (R - UT) – Conservative, funny looking guy

Biden, Joseph - (D - DE) – Liberal, beats out the O’Reilly Factor dork for world’s biggest blowhard

Bingaman, Jeff - (D - NM) – Liberal to centrist, smart

Bond, Christopher “Kit” - (R - MO) – Conservative, rumored to drink a lot

Boxer, Barbara - (D - CA) – Liberal, short

Next!

3

Breaux, John - (D - LA) Centrist (emphasises that alot) and founding member of the Centrist Coalition in the Senate (33 members according to his out of date list)
Brownback, Sam - (R - KS) – don’t know much about him either. (looks like Steve Colbert). Anti-cloning.

Bunning, Jim - (R - KY) – don’t know much on him

Burns, Conrad - (R - MT) – for ethanol and biofuel, besides that i know little of him.

Byrd, Robert - (D - WV) – former KKK member (has renounced them). besides being somewhat conservative i know little besides that fact.

Campbell, Ben - (R - CO) – likes motorcycles from his website picture, and claims to be for smaller gov’t (but has introduced a lot of Indian measures that would increase beaurocracy in that area, not that i disagree with the measures)

Cantwell, Maria - (D - WA) – environmentalist and womens’ rights supporter. IIRC this was one of the “too close to call” elections in 2000.

Carper, Thomas - (D - DE) – for clean air. besides that, i know little

Chafee, Lincoln - (R - RI) – never heard of the guy

Chambliss, Saxby - (R - GA) – doesn’t seem to have a webpage. don’t know who he is.

Clinton, Hillary - (D - NY) – don’t know who she is---- Just kidding!!! :wink: Obviously a liberal.

Cochran, Thad - (R - MS) – don’t know him, but historically i don’t like guys named Thad.

Coleman, Norm - (R - MN) – back to people i’ve heard of. This is the joker who said he was a 99% improvement over Paul Wellstone. He is 99% wrong! at least he apologized

Collins, Susan - (R - ME) – moderate, or so i’m told

Conrad, Kent - (D - ND) – don’t know the man

Cornyn, John - (R - TX) – don’t know nuthin’

Corzine, Jon - (D - NJ) – don’t know him, but doesn’t look like a “tax-breaks for the rich” guy

Craig, Larry - (R - ID) – This is the guy blocking 850 airforce promotions because they won’t base some bombers in his state. Just from that i don’t like him.

Crapo, Michael - (R - ID) – i nominate this guy as having the most unfortunate name in the Senate. besides being from the same state as Larry Craig i don’t know much about him.

That’s it for now…

4

Being from Mass, I can tell you about our 2 Senators.
John Kerry - MA - Democrat - Since he actually served his country by NOT dodging the draft, and went to Vietnam and did REAL fighting in a REAL war, he is a LIBERAL.
Ted Kennedy - MA - Democrat - Isn’t he supposed to be the #1 political liberal?
Being a citizen of Mass, I’m a liberal too. So sue me.

5

Wow. 100 debates in 1 thread. Have fun!

6

Hillary Clinton isn’t a liberal. At least, her record isn’t (and never was). Just look at how much shit she’s taking from constituencies that actually ARE liberal.

7

Being from DC, I could tell you a lot about all of these guys, but that would take too long. However, I’m not sure you can just label them so easily as “liberal” or “conservative.” There are many shades of liberal and conservative, and a lot of these guys (using the gender-neutral form of “guys,” by the way), while generally consistent, also hold inconsistent views on certain issues. Take Max Baucus, for example. He’s a generally conservative Democrat, is opposed to gun control and likes some tax cuts, and yet he opposed Bush’s latest tax cut. Or Bob Byrd – he is pro-mining and pretty conservative on environmental issues, and yet he is far from a conservative. He opposed the war in Iraq and Bush’s tax cuts, he strongly defends the federal bureaucracy, and he’s one of the biggest spenders in the Senate (he used to head the Appropriations Committee, and half of West Virginia is named after him due to all the pork he sends back there). A one word label will not suffice to describe these guys. You’ll need at least a paragraph for each.

8

Well, Cornyn is pretty new in Senate, after all. He used to be the Texas AG. His campaign page is still up at http://www.cornyn2002.org/

9

This is rapidly going into IMHO territory… but anyways.

Breaux, John - (D - LA) – Yes, centrist, and liked by many ladies

Brownback, Sam - (R - KS) – Conservative, holy roller. Adopted a couple of girls from China.

Bunning, Jim - (R - KY) – Conservative, huge jerk. Hall of fame pitcher.

Burns, Conrad - (R - MT) – Conservative, incredibly funny man.

Byrd, Robert - (D - WV) – Self described “social conservative and fiscal liberal.” Complex fellow indeed.

Campbell, Ben - (R - CO) – Conservative to centrist. Used to be a Dem. Champion judo player.

Cantwell, Maria - (D - WA) – Liberal, financed her own campaign, then her stock holdings went in the dumper when the bubble burst.

Carper, Thomas - (D - DE) – Centrist to liberal. I don’t know much about him either! :o

Chafee, Lincoln - (R - RI) – Centrist to liberal. A swing vote. Father served in Senate for many, many years.

Chambliss, Saxby - (R - GA) – Conservative. Tends to suffer from foot-in-mouth disease.

Clinton, Hillary - (D - NY) – Liberal. Nuff said.

Cochran, Thad - (R - MS) – Conservative. Stand-up guy. Could have become Majority Leader in '96, but fellow Mississippian Trent Lott beat him out.

Coleman, Norm - (R - MN) – Centrist to conservative. Hasn’t done very much so far.

Collins, Susan - (R - ME) – Centrist, possible swing vote. Always seemed more like a schoolteacher than a politician.

Conrad, Kent - (D - ND) – Liberal. Could join leadership in post-Daschle era, whenever that comes.

Cornyn, John - (R - TX) – Conservative. Big on FOIA, but hasn’t don’t much.

Corzine, Jon - (D - NJ) – Liberal. Quite rich - used to be a big muckedy-muck at one of the big investment banking firms - forget which one.

Craig, Larry - (R - ID) – Conservative. Works a lot on environmental issues, from the conservative perspective.

Crapo, Michael - (R - ID) – Conservative. It’s CRAY-poh! I don’t think he’s done anything in his several years in the Senate

10

in theory i plan to do brief overview to get their name listed, then eventually go over them in more detail one by one. (as long as work and studying doesn’t get in the way.) I also want to include a policy breakdown based on what they claim they are and what their votes show as well. It will give me something useful to do while bored late at night.

11

If you don’t already know about it, a good reference for you would be the “Almanac of American Politics”, available in many librairies. It has pages of information about each senator (and representative), including ratings by about ten different political lobbying groups.

Ed