The website ProgressivePunch describes itself as "a non-partisan searchable database of Congressional voting records from a Progressive perspective." But it's more than that. As it says about itself:
We show the performance of members within 160 different issue categories, and detailed vote descriptions, thereby empowering you to zero in on what matters to you. To see how progressively your member has voted or explore a policy issue that interests you, select from a search option below.
The site allows you to find out how your Congressman or Senator voted by issue category (health care, education, environment, war and peace) or by specific bill. You can also find out your representatives' "Progressive Score" overall, or by issue. Great stuff. Anyway, here are some highlights...er, LOWlights, about Virginia's Republican Congressional delegation.
Sen. George Allen: Overall Progressive rating of a miserable 6.03%. Lowlights include ZEROES on 1) "Education, Humanities & the Arts" and 2) "Family Planning." Allen gets a whopping 0.93% Progressive rating on "Fair Taxation," a 2.33% on "Human Rights & Civil Liberties," a 3.23% on "Environment," and a whopping 5.36% on "War and Peace" (including zeroes on "Arms Control Treaties," "Respect for International Law & the United Nations," "Response to Darfour Humanitarian Crisis in the Sudan," and "Nuclear Weapons"). Wow, that's impressive.
Tom Davis (11th CD): Overall Progressive rating of 14.01%, better than Allen but still awful. Lowlights include a ZERO on "Housing," a 1.23% on "Fair Taxation," a 1.30% on "Justice for All: Civil and Criminal," a 4.67% on "Labor Rights," and a 4.83% on "Making Government Work for Everyone, Not Just the Rich or Powerful." Davis' "best" Progressive rating is his whopping 18.25% on "Environment," followed by a 15.38% on "Education, Humanities, & the Arts." Great stuff, huh? Oh, and don't forget the Tom Davis/David Safavian connection. Thank goodness, we've got Andrew Hurst running against this guy.
Jo Ann Davis (1st CD): Overall Progressive rating of 6.48%, making Tom Davis look like a moderate! Ha ha. This woman gets a ZERO on "Education, Humanities, & the Arts," a 4.00% on "Health Care," and another 4.00% on "Human Rights & Civil Liberties." In other words, this woman's got to be defeated. That's why I say, GO SHAWN O'DONNELL!!!
Virgil Goode (5th CD): Overall Progressive rating of 6.90%, about the same as Jo Ann Davis. Goode's highest rankings are on "Housing" (12.50%), "Environment" (12.31%), and "Labor Rights" (12.04%). As if that isn't enough for ya, Goode just returned $88,000 in Duke Cunningham-linked political contributions. Pitiful. [UPDATE: "Nell" points out that I completely forgot to mention Al Weed and Bern Ewert, two Democrats running for the opportunity to take on - and take down! - Virgil Goode. I am VERY happy to see this, and wish both men "Goode" luck! :)]
Thelma Drake (2nd CD): Overall Progressive rating of an utterly abysmal 2.24%, making her even worse than Allen, Davis, and Goode. How bad is Drake? She actually ranks 409th least Progressive out of 434 members of Congress, with ZEROES in nine categories - "Fair Taxation," "Family Planning," "Health Care," "Human Rights & Civil Liberties," "Labor Rights," etc. This woman's HIGHEST rating is an atrocious 10.00% on "Corporate Subsidies." Luckily, we have a strong chance of defeating Thelma Drake this fall, with "Fighting Dem" David Ashe or with Phil Kellam.
Eric Cantor (7th CD): Overall Progressive rating of...drum roll please...1.40%!!! That's right, Eric Cantor is the absolute worst Congressman in Virginia, ranking #428 in the entire U.S. House of Representatives, above only six others. Cantor is so awful that his HIGHEST Progressive rating is a 2.56% on "War and Peace." Besides that, all his other ratings except for two are below 1%. Cantor also received money from Jack Abramoff: $1,000 on 5/08/01, $1,000 on 7/29/02, and $4,000 (in two separate, $2,000 contributions) on 3/19/03. He was in Tom DeLay's leadership team. And he was a HUGE Jerry W. Kilgore supporter. Is this guy great or what?!? Ha.
Now, just for comparison purposes, let's look at Bobby Scott, the Democratic Congressman for Virginia's 3rd District. Scott gets an overall Progressive score of 87.67%, with a 100.00% rating on "Housing" and a 90%+ ratings on most everything else. Or how about Rick Boucher (D-9th CD), who gets a 74.85% Progressive rating? Or Jim Moran (D-8th CD), with a decent 78.33% Progressive score?
The bottom line here is that Virginia's Republican representatives are absolutely awful, whether you care about Health Care, Education, the Environment, Justice for All, Labor Rights, Family Planning, or Making Government Work for Everyone, Not Just the Rich or Powerful. In other words, they're awful if you care about pretty much anything. That's why, in November 2006, we've got to get these people outta there. Get involved now and let's elect ourselves some people we can be proud of for a change.