These votes all show why backing O’Donnell in DE wasn’t such a bad move, even though she lost in the end. Castle would have voted yes on all of these, just as the Maine twins did, just as Brown did, just as Murkowksi did, etc...
Pretty much on any major issue, Castle could not be counted on. All he’d do would be provide more bipartisan cover for Obama to look good. Even on SC votes, could we really count on Castle? Of course not.
Now, he would have voted for GOP leadership but that’s pretty much just a symbolic vote, it means nothing substantively.
In the end, as far as conservatism is concerned, Castle was not part of the solution. Now, O’Donnell had her own issues, and if that whole witch thing had coeout before the primary she never would have won and nobody would have endorsed her. And the GOP establishment piling on did not help. I think a solid conservative could have won in DE this year. But going forward, I think we’re better off without Castle.
There has to be a way to invite faithless GOP'ers to take a walk across the aisle where they belong.
Ben Nelson is the only 'Rat who's got an ACU rating anywhere near theirs: he's 44 (2009) vs. the Maine twins' identical 48's.
A few other GOP'ers like Dick Lugar consistently hang scores about 65-70. Those are the "moderates".
Most of the 'Rats east of the Mississippi consistently score 10-20 ACU or less. Many are zeroes, and I mean a LOT of them. Even western 'Rats like Max Baucus rarely vote with conservatives more than 20% of the time.
Something to think about.
It would be interesting to see whether, instead of scoring every significant vote, the ACU scored legislators on just the five or six really "killer" votes like DADT and the bank bailout bill. That would really show us who the Iscariots are, because then they couldn't use less-significant issues as camouflage votes.