Conservative Organization Rates Mississippi’s Delegation for 2008

The American Conservative Union, the largest conservative lobbying group around, has been rating members of Congress since 1971, and they recently released their 2008 ratings.

I want to start out by saying I am disappointed to see Mississippi’s Representatives and Senators receive such low scores. This was a strange year where a large chunk of the votes included bailouts, a stimulus, tax rebates, and earmark reform. You can see the description of the House votes here and a description of the Senate votes here.

On the House side, Chip Pickering had the highest score of the group- an 82 (which was down from an 87 last year). He ended his 12 year career with a lifetime rating of 92. Travis Childers received a score of 41 in his first year. Gene Taylor had one of the more disappointing ratings- just a 24, this is down from a 72 in 2007 and down from his lifetime rating of 66. As you would expect, Bennie Thompson came home with the lowest score- an 8, although this is up from his 0 in ’07. His lifetime rating is a little more than 10.

The Senate side was a little more positive; thanks to two Republicans, but not what I would like to see. Roger Wicker, in his first year as a Senator, received an 80, which is a good bit lower than his lifetime rating of 91. Thad Cochran, the senior Senator has never received much love from the ACU, had a score of 68. His lifetime rating is 80.

As a whole, the ratings were down across the board. This isn’t that surprising considering the Democratic majorities, and their ability to push their legislation, which is often popular and requires Republicans to support it, even if it doesn’t fit the conservative mold.

And for the record, the only Senator to receive a perfect rating of 100 was Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Thirty-one members of the House received a perfect score.