Bennett gets a conservative label from D.C. interest groups

WASHINGTON — Legislative report cards by special-interest groups say Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is just as conservative as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. is liberal.

That may be news to the right wing in Utah, which this year has blasted Bennett for not being conservative enough while it has always blasted Reid as a liberal icon. Seven conservative Republicans are challenging Bennett for his seat amid such criticism.

The Deseret News decided to see how both conservative and liberal groups in Washington view Bennett on social and fiscal issues. It chose a wide spectrum of groups that score senators on a scale of 0 to 100 for their voting records. The News normalized scores so the higher they are, the more conservative the member.

On social issues, scorecards the newspaper chose came from the conservative groups National Right to Live, American Conservative Union, and U.S. Border Control, and the liberal groups American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Americans for Democratic Action and League of Conservation Voters. (Their scores are listed on a website for The Hill newspaper.)

Combined, the groups gave Bennett an average score of 84 out of 100 on a scale where 100 would be the most conservative possible, and 0 would be the most liberal possible.

Bennett ranked as the No. 22 most conservative in the Senate out of the 84 incumbents there who have been in office long enough to be rated by most groups.

The good news for Bennett (at least with conservatives in Utah) is that showed that most groups view him as very conservative. The bad news is that most still put him about in the middle of all Senate Republicans, so about half of his Senate GOP colleagues are even more conservative than he is.

For example, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ranked No. 11 with an average score of 91. (The most conservative of all was Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., with a score of 98 out of 100.)

Other Republicans who had similar scores as Bennett included Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsay Graham, R-Ga., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

Scores also reveal who is considered to be as liberal as Bennett is conservative.

Senators whose average score was 16 (which is essentially as liberal as Bennett's score of 85 is conservative) included Reid and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., both of whom have long been viewed by most as strong liberals.