John McCain's rating from the American Conservative Union was 96% for 2009. His lifetime rating is only 81.97% and his annual rating was only 63% in 2008, so McCain is actually becoming even more conservative.
For comparison, Sens. Isakson (GA), Sessions (AL), Grassley (IA), Roberts (KS), McConnell (KY), and Hutchison (TX) all had 96% ratings from the ACU in 2009. Should we get rid of them too?
Your arizona ACU ratings for McCain are off.
lifetime rating of 82.3% from the American Conservative Union is often cited as proof that he is conservative. Here is a closer look at that 82.3 rating.
First, a rating of 82.3 is not really that high. It puts Senator McCain in 39th place among senators serving in 2006, the latest year for which the ACU has its ratings posted online. For that most recent year in particular, McCain scored only 65, putting him in 47th place for that year. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), for example, scored 64 and 75, respectively, in 2006.
Generally, McCain has voted less conservatively in more recent years. His average for 1990-97 was 88, but was only 74 for 1998-2006. Below are his yearly ratings since 1990.
Year
ACU Rating
2006
65
2005
80
2004
72
2003
80
2002
72
2001
68
2000
81
1999
77
1998
68
1997
80
1996
95
1995
91
1994
96
1993
83
1992
85
1991
86
1990
87
So where did McCain differ from the ACU? The big areas were taxes, campaign finance reform, the environment and, most recently, immigration. There was also a smattering of support for trial lawyers; federal intervention in health, education, safety or voting issues; internationalism; and some social issues. He was more consistently conservative on spending and defense issues. The list below summarizes all his votes since 1998 that differed from the ACU’s position.
Another piece of information from the list above is that many of the votes were close. In one third of these votes, a swing of only two senators would have changed the outcome. In over two thirds, a swing of ten senators would have changed the outcome. As someone remarked, McCain is like a baseball player who gets all his hits after two outs and no one on base, and all his outs with men in scoring position.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/mccains_acu_ratings.html
“For comparison, Sens. Isakson (GA), Sessions (AL), Grassley (IA), Roberts (KS), McConnell (KY), and Hutchison (TX) all had 96% ratings from the ACU in 2009. Should we get rid of them too?”
Wouldn’t be a bad start! The ones you name often vote non conservative, and usually for amnesty, just like McCain.
Umm, I hope you do realize jumping from the low 60’s to the high 90’s in conservative rating in a once-in-six-years election cycle is not a reason for McCain to get our support.
“McCain is actually becoming even more conservative.”
I don’t think so. He seems to be conservative only when there’s an upcoming election. The day after he’ll be cutting deals with the Dems and selling us out once again.
I look at the trend and his rating only goes up when he's running for re-election as Senator or running for President. Then you dig deeper into the data and it's a mixed bag of peaks and valleys based on the issues ranging from immigration, national security, government mandated health care and taxation.