Beaufort Observer: How conservative is conservative enough?

The Third Congressional district race may tell us the answer to that question this year

October 25, 2011


We published an article the other day (10-21-11) that struck a nerve with a couple of our loyal readers. Both of them felt we should not have published the article, because it "made Walter look bad."

The "Walter" they are referring to is Third District Congressman Walter B. Jones. The article contained a rating from the Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington 'watchdog' organization. It rated and ranked all 535 members of Congress on their voting records to reduce government spending by cutting out waste. Walter Jones scored 61% in that assessment.

Our friends believe Walter Jones is a staunch conservative. So they argued that the Citizens rating was an aberration, and not indicative of his real record. So we did some research and found that indeed, the Citizens' rating was accurate. We went to the seminal conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation and checked their latest ratings of our representatives in Washington and found that, low an behold, Walter B. Jones was rated as voting "conservative" 45% of the time. You can check the original by clicking here.

To put that 45% rating in perspective, Jones ranked at the bottom of the Republicans in the delegation, voting liberal more than he voted conservative.
CONTINUED:  http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-NEWS-and-COMMENTARY-c-2011-10-25-256587.112112-How-conservative-is-conservative-enough.html