Debunking the Myth that Reichert is a Moderate

The National Journal recently came out with their 2007 Vote Ratings, where they

"rank lawmakers on how they vote relative to each other on a conservative-to-liberal scale in both the Senate and the House. The scores are based on the members' votes in three areas: economic issues, social issues, and foreign policy."

Republicans have enjoyed referencing these rankings to make the claim that Obama was the most liberal senator in 2007. So, fair's fair, let's use these same rankings to dispel the myth about Reichert as a "moderate".

Reichert ranks as the 159th, out of 440, most conservative member of the House of Representatives.

However, take a look at this chart taken from their House State by State breakdown:

National Journal House Vote Ratings - Washington Representatives

Conventional wisdom has always been that Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Doc Hastings are more conservative than Dave Reichert. Yet, Reichert is rated as more liberal than zero percent of the House on foreign policy. In other words, there are no members of the House who are more conservative than he is (note that the highest foreign policy score is Reichert's 72, shared with 119 other representatives - all Republican hawks). Even McMorris Rodgers and Hastings have a more liberal foreign policy voting record than Reichert.

And the primary foreign policy issue has been Iraq, on which Reichert has voted in support of Bush's policies 100% of the time.

That's not a moderate record, that's as far to the right as you can get without being an outright fascist, although some would say that's where the right is heading.

Reichert's voting record would be rated even more conservative overall than it is if he wasn't taking politically expedient safe votes all the time, where he opposes legislation through his votes until the final passage roll call, when he flips a throwaway vote to make his voting record look better than it really is. In the 110th Congress alone I have counted 20 such occasions he has done so, and a number of other times where he mostly opposed a bill he ended up voting for at the end. Without those throwaway votes his voting rating would be far more conservative.