Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, And Medved

On The Michael Medved Show today: Mr. Medved used statistics to make the current voting record of one of his favorite presidential candidates appear very more conservative than it – and he – has become.

Mr. Medved loves to tell us how he's a former liberal activist. Is he still brazenly performing stupid liberal tricks on behalf of the more liberal candidates? You decide.


All the following transpired as I heard Mr. Medved downplaying the presidential "non-candidacy" of Fred Thompson.

Mr. McCain
In the course of his comments, Medved compared the lifetime conservative voting scores (tallied by the American Conservative Union) of Fred Thompson (8 years) with John McCain (24 years).

Medved said that the two senators shared similar scores -- about 85%.

That McCain's lifetime numbers are so high isn't too hard to believe since he scored in the high 90s early in his career.

But without looking, I will bet that for the last few years Senator McCain's ACU rating has been about 50% if not lower.

To be fair, I don't view McCain's behavior as being much different from what happens to Supreme Court justices after they've been on the bench for some time. That McCain suffers from the communicable diseases endemic of the DC swamp, there can be little doubt.

But thinking of Supreme Court justices -- and of their Actonizaton -- should arouse in us all the most important of concerns about McCain: Is this the man we can depend upon to nominate conservative candidates to the high court? [shudder]

Mr. Medved
Now, overall, Medved was doing this carefully, in a softball fashion. But clearly, Medved was dismissive of any Fred Thompson candidacy. While he made many substantive points about Thompson having more played (as an actor) the leader than being the leader, Mr. Medved didn't -- wouldn't, couldn't? -- stop there.

Medved is quite candid. He's still pumping for McCain, Guiliani and Romney, in that order. It is not lost on me, nor should it be lost by other conservatives, that Medved's penchant is consistent with the behavior of an old-fashioned Progressive; that is, promoting men who have pulled up one or more set of "stakes"^☼: the anchors that sustain conservative principles. The Progressive is for men whom, presumably, can be relied upon to comfortably re-orient society to some point (typically left) where will henceforth be considered the political center.

As Mr. Medved was admittedly trying to promote the early establishment favorites, I guess he figured it was okay to stoop to such disingenuousness.

Did he think we wouldn't notice?

And what can we make of all this if he did figure we would notice?

The point of concern I wish you all to take away from this commentary is not about McCain, but about Medved.

Conclusion:
Yes. Medved loves to tell us how he's a former liberal activist. Well, is he not still brazenly performing stupid liberal tricks? And on behalf of the more liberal candidates?

Watch your back conservatives.