Should dead guys be counted as partisan? – UPDATED

I dunno, maybe I’m just reading this wrong, but I looked at this very interesting study done by the WaPo, and I’m thinking…isn’t Rep. Norwood dead? How can he be the most partisan guy in congress, if he’s dead?

He died in February of ’07. I suppose some will say since he was a member of this congress for a few weeks, he should be included. Well…okay. But it still seems to me that even if that’s the case, Mrs. Pelosi, who both lives and serves, should perhaps have had primacy in that list…being alive, and all.

Hmmm. I can’t help thinking that the WaPo stuck poor old Charlie Norwood at the top spot to shield Mrs. Pelosi from bearing distinction of being the “#1, absolutely most 100% partisan member of congress” all by herself…and because if they hadn’t used Norwood, the “most partisan” Republican you’d see would come in at #174.

Um…yeah…all the Representatives before her would be Democrats. Except the dead guy at the top…who is not alive. (Sorry to seem insensitive to his death; I’m not, but it is true that he is…no longer serving.)

Ed Morrissey writes:

…the Democrats take nine of the top ten partisan spots, as well as scoring 8 points higher in partisanship as a party. The lone Republican ties for first, though:

100% – Charlie Norwood (R-GA)
100% – Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
99.7% – Nita Lowey (D-NY)
99.4% – Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA)
99.1% – Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
98.9% – Xavier Bacerra (D-CA)
98.7% – Diana DeGetter (D-CO)
98.6% – Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
98.6% – Hilda Solis (D-CA)
98.6% – Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
98.6% – Al Wynn (D-MD)

After Norwood, the next Republican comes in at 94.8%. JoAnn Davis (R-VA) has only cast 134 votes, however, as she has missed significant time while fighting a recurrence of breast cancer. She comes in at #174 on the list of partisans — which means that Democrats occupy 172 of the previous 173 slots.

Well…actually if we recall that Rep. Norwood is…no longer serving, they occupy all of them.

Writes Ed:

In comparison, Republicans occupy all of the ten positions for the least partisan Representatives. The percentage of party votes for these range between 68%-78.4%. The first Democrat at that end of the spectrum comes in at #18.

I can’t say I’m much of a girl for Republicans, lately – I haven’t been for a while – but they seem at least a little – the teeniest bit – more willing to “work with the loyal opposition” to actually get something done than the Democrats, at least if the WaPo is to be believed.

I am trying so hard these days not to be cynical – I really am. But it just seems wrong to me to put Rep. Norwood (Deceased, GA) at the top of a partisanship breakdown.

Ed points out that the Democrats also top the partisan chart in the Senate, too, although by less of a margin.

Kinda nice to see it all spelled out in such a way, isn’t it? And newsworthy too, don’t you think?

UPDATE: Derek Willis of the WaPo was nice enough to stop by and leave a clarifying note in the comments section. That’s much appreciated, thanks. And as another commenter mentioned below, I suppose it isn’t completely untoward for the Speaker of the House to be at 100%…I wonder how often a speaker does vote FOR the opposition’s legislation. That would be interesting to know. As to the rest, well…I keep needing to remember to just stick to what I know and stop trying to guess what others are intending – I too often come up wrong.

It’s a bad habit of blogging, that last, but I am actually trying to do better. I feel like we need a little more “good will toward all” in the nation and there wasn’t much in my conjecture – I’m working on it. After having, sadly, dipped more than my big toe into the teeming “Lake O’ Hate” that has become American politics, I find that even with my newer, better intentions, a bad old habit has resurfaced. Thank God for new days and new chances to improve ourselves. I will keep trying.

Meanwhile, Tapscott tells us that Reid and Pelosi are “gutting earmark reform.” This congress gets more impressive every day.