Top Senate Conservatives Decimated by Retirements & Defeats as Evidenced by This List

TOP "TEN" CONSERVATIVE LIST based on 2002 Conservative Index scores published in The New American magazine:

US Senate (12 total)
1. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) 74% (retiring)
2. Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) 71%
3. Sen. Robert Smith (R-NH) 70% (defeated by moderate Sununu in GOP primary)
4. Sen Phil Gramm (R-TX) 66% (retiring)
5. Sen Voinovich (R-OH) 64%
6. Sen. Strom Thurmond (retiring), Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK), Sen. Jim Bunning all tied at 63%
7. Sen. Ensign (R-NV) 62%
8. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) 61%
9. Sen. James Inhofe & Sen. Jeff Sessions tied at 60%

NEW 2003 TOP SENATE CONSERVATIVE LIST (8 total)

1. Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) 71%
2. Sen Voinovich (R-OH) 64%
3. Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK), Sen. Jim Bunning all tied at 63%
4. Sen. Ensign (R-NV) 62%
5. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) 61%
6. Sen. James Inhofe & Sen. Jeff Sessions tied at 60%

The above list are the much vaunted Conservative Index rankings which I have been promoting. It is published every four months by the New American magazine, which champions conservative principles and America First policies. You will find this list to be the most accurate and insightful measure of conservativeness available for our House and Senate members. It is far and away more accurate than the much discredited American Conservative Union "Conservative Rating" listing which ends up measuring party loyalty (voting with the GOP House or Senate leadership) rather than votes that tend to show adherence to conservative principles. To provide context to this list, as a general rule conservatives are anyone that has a Conservative Index score around 65% or better. Moderate conservatives fall into the 55-65% range, moderates in the 40-54% range and liberals in the 30s and below so the listing of conservative Senators above is fairly comprehensive.

In the Senate, Bob Smith (a personal hero of mine) has usually scored as the #1 top conservative so this #3 ranking was unusually low for him. Don Nickles (who I have long been trying to recruit to run against Trent Lott for Senate Minority Leader and who actually said he would challenge Lott if the GOP retakes the Senate as I predict it will) usually scores in the top ten. The Senate conservative numbers were unusually low presumably due to the fact that the GOP supported more liberal "bipartisan" legislation than normal during the past year of Democrat control. If your Senator is not on this list or if they score in the 65% conservative or below range, you need to call them and urge them to do better.

As a point of reference, other House and Senate Leader scores include Trent Lott, a moderate conservative scoring at 56%, current House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) at 57% and future House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) at 63% both scoring in the moderate conservative range. Speaker Hastert voted so seldomly, he could not be scored (even less than is traditional for House Speakers) but generally he scores in the low 50s in the moderate range.

As can be readily seen by the above list, the loss of three of four of the top six conservatives (Helms, Smith, Gramm and Thurmond) in the US Senate is an absolutely crushing defeat to the conservative cause! Bob Smith’s surprising defeat at the hands of a much more moderate big govt challenger, John Sununu was especially troubling to pro-life conservatives. What we have here is all the outspoken conservative leadership of the US Senate completely wiped out by retirements and a stunning primary upset with their leadership being replaced by conservatism of a different stripe if it indeed can be called conservatism at all—big govt conservatism. While Clinton in 1998 declared that the era of big participant is over” Republicans have gleefully reversed that proclamation by inaugering an era of big govt deficit spending that would have made even liberal Democrat President Bill Clinton blush. Compassionate conservatism is nothing but a catchy new moniker for describing big govt fiscal liberalism and bipartisan pragmatism and moderation on social issues. Now this has apparently replaced the traditional conservatism of Jesse Helms, Bob Smith, Phil Gramm, Strom Thurmond, and Bob Barr? Very sad indeed! Without Smith, Barr, and Helms you have a New Republican Party of big govt compassionate “conservatism.” Time for traditional conservatives to mobilize for a comeback to recapture their party from the big govt Clinton policy supporting types that have stealthily taken it over.

Muster the troops and pass the ammo because we are readying for a fight. We are going to relegate all of the RINO Rockefeller Republicans to the ash heap of history with their fellow socialists where they belong. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but sometime soon. You can bet on it! The first battle begins in earnest in November when we will elect a new Senate Majority leadership. Nickles should be our choice for Majority Leader and we must unite to defeat Santorum (who never met a pro-abortion or RINO candidate whom he didn’t support or endorse) from his likely bid for the Asst Majority Leader position. I would support John Kyl or James Inhofe for Asst Majority Leader. Then once we have got a united conservative Senate Republican leadership like Nichols/Kyl, we need to eliminate all the RINO Committee Chairman like John McCain and replace them with real conservatives. With God's help and a lot of hard work in concert with the efforts of those conservatives still in the Senate, we will be successful.

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