Favorite new Democratic Senator?

[Ebowed]

McCaskill and Webb seem to be pretty much useless.  Their records may change in the future but for now they come across as conservative Democrats in the mold of Tom Carper or Joe Lieberman.

Casey is a well-known DINO.

Klobuchar and Cardin are both uninspiring and more conservative than their predecessors, and the Senate would generally be much better off without them; Cardin in particular.

Tester, Brown, Sanders, and Whitehouse all appear to be quite impressive.  Whitehouse is my favorite at the moment.

[Nym90]

1. Tester
2. Webb
3. McCaskill
4. Brown
5. Casey

[angus]

At the moment I like Sanders.  He's one of the few senators, Democrat or Republican, who has the balls to tell the truth about the housing market.  He says it isn't the government's job to bail individuals or corporations out of loans that shouldn't have been made in the first place.  This is a huge issue for me.  Any congressman or senator who votes to spend my money buying anyone a house they couldn't afford, or bailing any company out for making loans to people with no verifiable income and little or no money down, will lose my respect.  My own congressman, Bruce Braley, thinks the government should "do something" about falling house prices to prevent mortgage foreclosures.  I do not.  Hopefully Sanders can convince more of his colleagues that an adjustment is necessary and the lessons it'll teach investors is something valuable that you can only get in the school of real-world decision-making.

[Everett]

I don't necessarily agree with him on everything, but I like Bernie Sanders.

Since Keystone Phil isn't around, I will say it for him: I f**king hate Bob Casey. Stupid, stupid trash. Honestly, when your party has the opportunity to run someone against Santorum, you are utterly moronic and blind to opportunity if you somehow feel confined to picking some DINO who angers people from both sides. At least don't cheat liberal voters of a real Democrat.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Whitehouse.

None are as bad as Lieberman, and I actually don't mind Casey that much because he basically votes as a puppet of the Democrats on most issues other than stem cell research. But honestly, I don't care who holds that seat as long as it is not Rick Santorum.

[Verily]

Probably Sanders, though I disagree with a lot of his economics. Angus makes a good point about Sanders; he's willing to say things most of the rest of the Senate is too wrapped up in their political blankets to say. Whitehouse is pretty good, too.

[Sensei]

Sanders is a big time FF, but of the economically sane people, Whitehouse.

[opebo]

At the moment I like Sanders.  He's one of the few senators, Democrat or Republican, who has the balls to tell the truth about the housing market.  He says it isn't the government's job to bail individuals or corporations out of loans that shouldn't have been made in the first place.  This is a huge issue for me.  Any congressman or senator who votes to spend my money buying anyone a house they couldn't afford, or bailing any company out for making loans to people with no verifiable income and little or no money down, will lose my respect.  My own congressman, Bruce Braley, thinks the government should "do something" about falling house prices to prevent mortgage foreclosures.  I do not.  Hopefully Sanders can convince more of his colleagues that an adjustment is necessary and the lessons it'll teach investors is something valuable that you can only get in the school of real-world decision-making.

Oh crap.  The entirety of suburbia and nearly every middle class white person's housing and lifestyle over the last 50 years was not just subsidized but created by the US government.  That is why there was a modicum of 'prosperity', angus.  Please don't disrupt Keyensianism with your prune-faced resentful 'individualist morality'.  I know you think it makes sense, but the odd thing is that macroeconomically and anyway for most people - it doesnt.

Oh and:
1) Whitehouse
2) Sanders

[Speed of Sound]

When I first saw that Sanders was moving up to the senate, I was totally psyched. Looking over the record so far, he has not let me down at all. Let us hope to elect 100 Sanders's!

[Governor PiT]

McCaskill and Tester. I like Tester but I would of supported the Libertarian due to his stiff opposition to the NAU.

[Michael Z]

Jim Webb of course. At last, a Democrat with cojones.

[Lief 🗽]

Webb and McCaskill have been atrocious. And I was a huge, huge Webb supporter. Of all the Democrats in 2006, he was the one I most wanted to win.

Casey... ugh.

Brown has been surprisingly good. Sanders as the only social democrat in the Senate, is great. Whitehouse is a solid Democrat. Tester is doing pretty well.

[angus]

prune-faced resentful 'individualist morality'

"resentful"

I'll accept that charge.  I do resent it.  And so, apparently, does your Number Two favorite senator.

"prune-faced"

Not so sure about that one.  I don't even know what the hell it means.  But I have seen prunes--as a matter of fact I saw three of them today.  my son loves them.  dates too, for that matter--and I'm not quite so wrinkled and not quite so dark as they are. 

"individualist morality"

sure, why not?  That's Lockean.  Actually, I was thinking about individualism vis-a-vis socialism just today.  I had read something about the Tihuantinsuyu, and the Inca.  And I thought about how hard it'd be to have true socialism in any Western society.  Even Cubans and Ukranians and Czechs were never truly socialist.  I'm not sure I can label "individualist morality" as good or bad, but it's part of who we are.  Certainly part of who you are, judging by your posts and rants, so it's a tad paradoxical that you'd knock it.

[WalterMitty]

klobuchar, for sure.

while i would have preferred kennedy, i have no problems with klobuchar.

[Governor PiT]

Sanders is to far left for me but I loved his confrentation with Greenspan. btw he's not a dem.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Brown has been surprisingly good.

Why surprisingly? He was great in the House.

[Lief 🗽]

He voted against Habeas in the House...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah, because he was running for election at the time. I'm pretty sure he would've never otherwise, he even voted against the Patriot Act. Not happy about it, but it's only one blemish on an otherwise nearly spotless record, only other disappointment is that stupid flag burning amendment, but that's a moot point now because that thing is dead in the current Congress anyway.

[Frodo]

Jim Webb, naturally.  I haven't heard much from him (with the exception of that much-publicized bill of his to limit troop deployments to the length of time they spend recuperating at home), but going over his voting record (as short as it is this early in his first term), I don't have much to complain about. 

And the fact that some leftists here find him too conservative for their tastes doesn't hurt either. 

[Hatman 🍁]

Lillian Dyck.  Oh sorry, read the qestion wrong

Sanders of course!

[Verily]

Lillian Dyck.  Oh sorry, read the qestion wrong

Sanders of course!

She's not officially a New Democratic Senator, you know

[Hatman 🍁]

Lillian Dyck.  Oh sorry, read the qestion wrong

Sanders of course!

She's not officially a New Democratic Senator, you know

Neither is Sanders!

[Ebowed]

Sanders is to far left for me but I loved his confrentation with Greenspan. btw he's not a dem.

He caucuses with the Democrats.

[angus]

Neither is Sanders!

I thought his inclusion was strange too.  Then I realized that the thread isn't using the phrase "New Democrat" the way Clinton and Gore used it in the 90s.  I think here "new" just means "recently elected, for the first time, to the US senate"

Also, I think Sanders actually is an "Independent" (but someone already pointed out that his committee assignments, etc., are those that the Democrat caucus gives him.

[opebo]

'Independent' is a rather meaningless concept, as there are only two sides in american politics (and even that bifurcation is a bit deceptive).

Most independents are just silly showboats.. I suppose Sander's identification as a 'socialist' was a bit better than most as he set himself out as definitely to the left of the center-right Democrats.  I guess he chickened out when he ran for the Senate?