By Douglas Lindsey, 7/1/2011

In the past I have reviewed the extremes within the Senate in terms of ideology by comparing Senators DeMint and Sanders, and Senators Thune and Franken. In this week’s review I decided to examine the two most known ‘moderates’ in the Senate, their critics would call them, “RINOs” or “DINOs” depending on one’s point of view. Senators Olympia Snowe from Maine and Ben Nelson from Nebraska can make the most partisan senators from either political party to roll their eyes in admonishment.

Does measuring the partisanship of these two Senators confirm or weaken their critic’s criticism?

When does ‘bipartisanship’ not only hurt their Party but the nation as well?

Senator Snowe has voted against her Republican Party’s Majority 3 of 20 times on Judicial Nominations confirmed by the Senate, while Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama voted with the Republican Majority on all of the Judicial Nominations, 3 of those Nominations were rejected by the Republican Majority, Edward Milton Chen, Susan L. Carney, and Michael H. Simon. Senator Snowe voted for the confirmation of all three would be progressive judges, most notably Edward Milton Chen the former ACLU Lawyer and UC of California at Berkeley graduate who now sits on the most overturned Court in the land…the United States District Court for the Northern District of California also known as the infamous ‘Ninth Circuit’

In 2011 Senator Snowe was ranked 30th (4%), tied with 8 Democrats on the Most Conservative Senators Rankings List and ranked 23rd (43%) on the Most Progressive Senators List. Senator Snowe voted for all four of the Bills the Democratic Majority passed without the help of the Republican majority of rollcall votes. Senator Olympia Snowe was ranked 11th as the most Conservative Senator in 2010 by voting 88% (74 of 84) on conservative legislation, there were 28 Republicans ahead of her with only 41 Republicans in the Senate that year. Senator Snowe voted 35% (53 of 150) of the time and was ranked 21th on the Most Progressive Senators List during the 2010 Congressional year, below her were 39 other Republicans.

Senator Snowe had two pieces of sponsored legislation, S.Amdt.193 and S.Amdt.390, both made it to the floor of the Democratic controlled Senate in 2011; S.Admt.390 a bill to reform the regulatory process to ensure that small businesses are free to compete and to create jobs, and for other purposes was ‘Rejected’ by 44 Democrats, for some reason Senator Snowe’s Amendment needed a 3/5th majority to pass, only 6 Democrats voted for Senator Snowe’s Job Bill. In these times of high unemployment one can’t seem to fathom, why? What Democratic sensibilities were offended by Senator Snowe’s Amendment? Of course all of the Republican Senators voted for S.Amdt.390. S.Amdt.193 a Bill to strike the Federal authorization of the National Veterans Business Development Corporation enjoyed bipartisan support with 99 votes. Senator Nelson voted for both Amendments.

In 2010 Senator Snowe voted for Cloture 54% (28 of 52) of the time in support of the Democratic leadership while maintaining an overall 79% Party Percent average voting with the Republican Minority. In 2011 Senator Snowe voted for Cloture 68% (23 of 34) of the time, ranked 11th while maintaining a 75% Party Percent Average. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson is voting 25 of 34 (74%) of the time on Cloture votes. Republican Senator Rand Paul is at the bottom of the Cloture Ranking List, voting with the Democratic Leadership on Cloture in 2011 3 of 34 (9%).

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska was ranked 19th as the most Progressive Senator in 2010 by voting 58% (136 of 150) on Democratic majority of votes where there was no Republican majority vote support. Senator Al Franken from Minnesota was ranked number one with 100%, eleven senators were tied at number two, Olympia Snowe was ranked 20th on the Progressive Ideology Ranking List. Senator Nelson voted 55% (46 of 84) on key Conservative votes during the 2010 Congressional year. After 103 roll call votes this year Senator Nelson is ranked 11th 7 of 19 (33%) on the Conservative Ideology Ranking List, 26 democratic senators have voted 2 times or less on Republican majority of votes where there was no Democratic majority vote support.

Senator Nelson had two pieces of sponsored legislation that made it to the floor of the Democratic controlled Senate this year, S.Admt.182 and S.Amdt.58, both were ‘Agreed to’ in a overwhelming demonstration of bipartisanship. Senator Snowe voted for both Amendments.

Senator Nelson and ten other democrats voted with the Republican Majority and against the Democratic Majority on S.Amdt.115, to express the sense of the Senate in support of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Progressive Al Franken and Democratic-Socialist Bernard Sanders were against this amendment.

Senator Nelson did vote in favor of ‘Obama Care’ again when he joined his fellow democrats and voted against Senator Mitch McConnell's  S.Amdt.13 to repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Senator Nelson like all of his fellow democrats voted in favor of H.R.3590 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but commonly known as 'Obama Care'.

In 2010 Senator Nelson voted for Cloture 67% (35 of 52) of the time in support of the Democratic leadership while maintaining an overall Party Percent average of 63% which ranked him tenth at the bottom of all democrats. Olympia Snowe was just two spots down from Nelson with 28 of 52 or 54%, just seven cloture votes between both Senators. One could argue that Senator Snowe was closer to being a Democrat, than Senator Nelson was to being a Republican just on the Cloture vote data alone. Since 2005 Senator Snowe has voted on 365 of 743 or 49% pieces of progressive legislation compared to Senator Nelson’s 484 of 743 or 65%; Snowe has voted on 317 of 554 or 57% pieces of conservative legislation compared to Nelson’s 285 of 554 or 51%. The Senate Data shows Senator Snowe is closer to a Democrat, than Senator Nelson is closer to a Republican. The democrats control the Senate and the impact on the direction this nation is moving politically, if the nation is moving in the wrong direction then Senator Snowe’s voting record against her Party’s Majority efforts to move the nation in the 'Right' direction is working against the best interests of the United States of America and this Republic.

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