Vote for Senator Kerry progressive hero

[Mass]

Talk about stupidity. In this DFA poll, Claire McCaskill is before Kerry as a progressive hero (really?). In addition, note how the description of Kerry is that he joined Feinstein to support RMA, ignoring his support for the Dream Act and DADT.

http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/1173?akid=1346.490932.M892Rp&t=1

[karynnj]

1. DFA is beyond ridiculousness

I still have not forgiven them for their idiotic posting of the Bold Progressive garbage - that included Kerry when they were attacking Senators on the public option, in spite of the fact that he was an early, clear supporter. They included him just on the dollars raised from the insurance companies, that was mostly individual donations to his Presidential campaign. The DFA new better - Kerry was always on Dean's list as a supporter - but I suspect they contain the hard remnants of the group who think that somehow Kerry, the party, the media, TPTB etc cheated Dean out of his rightful nomination in 2004.

I did vote for Kerry, even though they are just fishing for names and emails - I am already subscribed to them anyway. The descriptions are stupid - every Democrat voted to end DADT and most supported the Dream Act. Harkin is noted as voting against gutting the EPA - when his, like many progressives', was not even a sure vote for Kerry's climate change bill,

I have a big problem with the word "progressive" anyway. I understand what liberal means in any context - social issues, economic issues etc, but there are contradictions on what "progressive" actually means. A few years ago, I looked at one organization's scores because the Senators did not line up as I would expect. Not placing Kerry high was actually not my biggest problem - having Byrd high and Sherrod Brown in the middle (tied with Kerry) was. However, as it was posted against Kerry, I looked at the difference in votes between Feingold (the second highest) and Kerry for the first half of the year.

My conclusion was that in nearly ALL cases I agreed with Kerry. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/karynnj/33 contains the summary I created of all votes where they disagreed. From this, I think that Kerry, like Kennedy was, is a liberal. It seems that progressives - at least from this group - are more libertarian than liberal.

[ObamaKerryDem]

2. I participated in this out of loyalty to and support for JK, but ultimately, I agree..

..Nothing against her, but it's INSANE that McCaskill--a "Blue Dog" in a lot of ways-- is ranked higher than JK! I think a lot of this goes back to the fact that a lot of "Bold Progressive" type groups like this still seem to be holding a big grudge against JK for 2004. These tend to be a lot of the same people who maintain that he didn't fight hard enough, that he "let Bush win", that he'd "rather be windsurfing" (yes, taken from an actual comment on greater DU on a older thread about this), blah de blah. I'm surprised that JK ranked even this high with this sort of group!

Frustrating!

I think you are exactly right in your assessment in your last paragraph. Though JK is of course his own person/statesman in his own right, he is more in line with Teddy than these folks will likely ever give him credit for--and like I've told JK, doing Teddy proud. :) Even if they won't ever give him his due for it. *sigh* :thumbsdown:

[karynnj]

3. The methodology leads to odd results

It is likely that many campaigns have "freaped" this. No one thinks McCaskill is THE leading progressive. In fairness, I don't think Kerry is either - and I like him better than if he were! It is seriously weird that ANYONE voted for Baucus, Warner or many others over people like Sherrod Brown!

[MBS]

5. Both yours and ObamaKerryDem's comments

are really astute!
I just voted. My only quarrel with the "villains" descriptions is that they don't even begin to describe how awful all these people are , and in how many ways.
Also, as you noted, the "heroes" descriptions really don't explain what their most important contributions are. Needless to say, I found the JK description particularly wanting.
The current senate "heroes" ranking is absurd.

[wisteria]

4. LOL, that was fun. Of course I voted for Senator Kerry as my progressive hero,

but I loved voting against those Repubs. So many, are so awful, it was a tough choice, but I came up with the current #3 for the Senate and #1 from the House.

[Inuca]

6. For the little that it's worth

Kerry is now just ahead of McCaskill (15 and 16, respectively).