Are Kerry and Edwards the most, and 4th most liberal Senators?

We report. You decide. Look - I'm not necessarily a liberal. I'm a centrist. I make no secret of the fact that I was a McCain supporter/volunteer in 2000, and that I was a registered Republican until about October 2003. So, when I hear charges from the Bush camp accusing Kerry of being the top liberal, and John Edwards being the fourth most liberal member of the Senate, I know how that charge will resonate with the more middle-of-the-road folks. They're not going to be thrilled by that. This leads us to this letter, written to former Bush supporter, but still a conservative Andrew Sullivan:

"I'm growing a bit frustrated with the media, including you, running with this Kerry and Edwards being the first and fourth most liberal Senators. Everyone is citing the National Journal's ratings but they are doing it sloppily. I have seen no recent article that cites anything but the 2003 ratings where Kerry missed 37 and Edwards missed 22 of 62 votes and both were setting themselves up for primary battles where their base was essential. Think what you may about missing votes and pandering a bit (seems suicide to not do both when going for the nomination), but my larger point is the media should be looking at this much more historically and in years when Edwards and Kerry actually showed up to do their jobs. I'll do it for them. Following are rankings and liberal scores since 1999. 2003: Kerry - 1st (96.5) Edwards - 4th (94.5) 2002: Kerry - 9th (87.3) Edwards - 31st (63.0) Edwards made the centrist list. 2001: Kerry - 11th (87.7) Edwards - 35th (68.2) Edwards almost tied with Lieberman. 2000: Kerry - 20th (77) Edwards - 19th (80.8) Rankings past 20 are not available nor are composite scores for all Senators, so Kerry is 21st or higher. 1999: Kerry - 16th (80.8) Edwards - 31st (72.2) Average: Kerry - 12th (85.9) Edwards - 24th (75.7) Now this paints a different picture. Certainly Kerry is a stalwart liberal (although probably not or barely a top 10 liberal), but he does hail from and represent one of the most liberal states. But Edwards is definitely a moderate Democrat (if you define that as somewhere in the ideological middle of the Democratic platform).