Grading politicos

Uncle has a post up about some revelations regarding Elena Kagan:

And National Review has learned that in 1996, Kagan apparently tied the NRA to the KKK — yes, the KKK — while debating the Clinton administration’s position on a bill.

Wonder how (or if) the NRA will score this vote to approve Kagan?

I've always had problems with gun rights' groups ratings of politicians, mostly because you don't know how they are arrived at. So here's my proposal for a rating system ......

Scale starts at 60 and goes to 100, with a 10-point spread between letter grades: 90-100 = A; 80-89 = B; 70-79 = C; 60-69 = D; and below 60 = F.

All votes that have to do with gun rights are scored either up or own - vote for gun rights, win a point; vote against gun rights, get no points. Then your number of points are weighted by your term in office length - representatives would be two, senators would be six - by multiplying. Except for Supreme Court nominees .... those would be multiplied by the average length of service for justices (currently under 16 years .... say 15 to be charitable). Now divide your total # of points by the multiplier ... that's your score.

Example: a bill to repeal the Hughes amendment is up for a vote. Heath Schuler (A-rated) voted to repeal. He gets one point, times 2 since he's a representative, gives a total of 2 points, divided by his term length which is two, so his score is 1 ..... he gets an A.

Dick Durbin votes against the companion legislation in the senate, so using my formula, lets see ..... 0 x 6 = 0 and divide that by 6 and you get 0. Little Dicky Durbin is a resounding F.

But if we have a bill do repeal the NFA, Heath Schuler might vote not to repeal, so he gets no points ... if you add this vote to his last vote on the Hughes amendment, he's got 2 points divided by 4 ..... uh oh, down to a score of 50. Now Mr Schuler is F.

Is this a legitimate score? It is to me. If I can't count on you to defend my rights all the time, you shouldn't get an A. You only get an A if you defend my rights every single time you have an opportunity.

Only seems logical.

pm