Kicking off the panel discussion segment of last night's "Special Report," Fox News anchor Bret Baier aired a clip of Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Evan Bayh (Ind.) warning about the need to reform entitlement spending in order to preserve America's long-term financial solvency.
Baier then contrasted the frankness of the admission from the "two moderate Democrats" with the scary campaign rhetoric weeks earlier from liberal Democrats about Republicans and their ideas -- real or imagined -- to rein in entitlement spending.
But are Conrad and Bayh truly moderates? I'll report some stats, you can decide.
In 2009, the senators scored 95% and 80% liberal on the issues, respectively, as judged by the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. In 2008, their percentages were 90 and 70 respectively. In other words, their votes became slightly more liberal after Obama took office.
By contrast, the American Conservative Union scored Conrad as conservative on the issues only 13 percent of the time in 2009, a spike from his 2008 figure of zero but six points shy of his lifetime average of 19.28 percent. Bayh by contrast had a respectable -- for a Democrat -- 40 percent conservative ranking in 2009, a marked improvement from his lifetime average of 22.45 percent, and from his 2008 score of 29 percent.
So what say you?
