Fort Collins Coloradoan editor Bob Moore wrote short sharp blog today on Congressional Quarterly’s midyear voting trends report. Moore says Republicans will blast 4th District U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey for voting the Democratic Party line 92 percent of the time. But he points out that that’s not the loyalist record they will make it out to be. Other interesting numbers were racked up by 2nd District Democrat Jared Polis, who seems to like the party a lot better than he likes the President these days.
Per Moore, who also blogged the story at Colorado Pols:
As you might expect, Rep. Betsy Markey of Fort Collins votes with her party less often than any Colorado House member, 92 percent. Sen. Michael Bennet, who’s up for election in 2010,is at 91 percent.
The Democratic House median is 98 percent, according to CQ, and Marilyn Musgrave voted with the GOP 97 percent of the time in 2008. But CSU political science chair Bob Duffy predicts you’ll see Republican statements like “Markey votes with liberal Nancy Pelosi 92 percent of the time.”
Jared Polis supports the party 98 percent of the time, even as his well-publicized problems with Obama, particularly concerning the President’s equivocating posture on gay rights, has translated to a low 87 percent support for the popular Chief Executive.
Clearly, that kind of response from Polis works for Obama. The president seems intent to push back against pressure applied by the progressive left and the gay movement, who are demanding that he take stronger stands on civil liberties issues.
Obama seems to feel those issues are wedge issues that will jeopardize his larger ambitious agenda, scared off no doubt by Pres. Clinton’s early-term experience with the terrible half-way military policy “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Obama’s Administration is delaying promised action on repealing both that policy and the Defense of Marriage Act.
“We’ve been in office six months … I suspect that by the time this administration is over, you guys will have pretty good feelings,” Obama told representatives of gay groups on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots that effectively birthed the gay rights movement. It was typical Obama: smooth, moderate, probably true and completely unsatisfying.
Bob Moore’s chart:
