The
Council analyzes congressional votes as one measurement of Senators’ and
Representatives’ positions on key national security issues. This task has become
more difficult in past years as the Senate has avoided controversial votes.
Over
the past two years, there have been only four votes that provide a good
indication of where Senators stand on defense and foreign policy topics. As a
result, we have combined key votes over the past four years to produce our
voting record, including a number of key votes during Senate consideration of
the New START nuclear reductions treaty in 2010.
Although
these votes provide a good measure of where Senators stand on key national
security issues, they are only one measure of a Senator’s positions, ideology
and effectiveness. Also important are their work in committee, leadership on
issues and ability to build coalitions and secure majorities.
With
this imperfect measuring stick, we have listed votes of Senators in office. For
those with up to 12 votes, we calculated a percentage “right.” For those in
office only two years, we did not list a score; four votes is not a sufficient
sample of key issues.
Of those Senators in office all four years
covered by this voting record, 22 Democratic and Independent Senators scored a
perfect 100%. Though most Republican Senators finished with a zero, six scored a
50% or above.
No comments:
Post a Comment