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Power rankings: NC Delegation Sucks

Submitted by James on Sat, 05/20/2006 - 9:26am

A little gem from Under the Dome at the News and Observer.

North Carolina's congressional delegation ranked 44th in the nation in the Congress.org "Power Rankings" released this week. And though a few individual members of the state's delegation hold some authority in Congress, for the most part our representatives float near the bottom. Given the party in power, it helps to be Republican of course.

The rankings are based on a formula that takes into account a member's committee assignments, any leadership positions, proven influence and legislative authority, demonstrated by how effective he or she is at pushing through bills.

In the Senate, Dole ranks 56th and Burr ranks 94th. Both are Republican. In the House, Charles Taylor, a Brevard Republican, ranks 23rd and Walter Jones, a Republican from Farmville, ranks 44th.

Here are the rest:

* Rep. Robin Hayes, Concord, Republican, 67

* Rep. Howard Coble, Greensboro, Republican, 94

* Rep. Patrick McHenry, Cherryville, Republican, 153

* Rep. Mel Watt, Charlotte, Democrat, 197

* Rep. David Price, Chapel Hill, Democrat, 256

* Rep. Sue Myrick, Charlotte, Republican, 280

* Rep. Virginia Foxx, Banner Elk, Republican, 292

* Rep. Bob Etheridge, Lillington, Democrat, 341

* Rep. Mike McIntyre, Lumberton, Democrat, 357

* Rep. Brad Miller, Raleigh, Democrat, 415

* Rep. G.K. Butterfield, Wilson, Democrat, 422

For full results, go to www. congress.org.

If Taylor's 23rd in effectiveness, can you imagine how freakin' useless Myrick, Hayes, Foxx and McHenry are? I don't expect much from Dems, given they're not in power, but sheesh, what a bunch of wimps we have representing us in the US House. And the Senate? Burr and Dull are downright pathetic. Burr is 6th from the bottom? Way to go Dick.

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Comments

I saw this earlier in the week

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Sat, 05/20/2006 - 9:53am.

but didn't want to write about it. If you go to Congress.org you can read how they come up with these rankings. They exclude legislation having to do with naming buildings. They look at legislation and appointments to committees and even consider what they call sizzle factor. Obama has sizzle.

How in God's name did Hayes make it to 67? He's had one piece of legislation and two amendments pass in 6 years and I think he's on three committees - Livestock chair...whoo hooooooo

It must be that Chairmanship of the Congressional Sportsman's Caucus that brought him so much power...yeah...that's it.



***************************
Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.

The reason I didn't want to write

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Sat, 05/20/2006 - 9:55am.

about it was I didn't want to be the one to point out that Taylor and Hayes had ranked in the top 100.

Pretty damned ineffective if you ask me.



***************************
Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.

Taylor 23rd??

Submitted by Todd on Sun, 05/21/2006 - 12:52am.

How could Taylor be 23rd? Was the voting limited to timber companies, Jack Abramoff, and the Russian mafia?