MN Rep. runs on bipartisanship, voted with White House 95% of the time

I've mentioned before that Democrats challenging incumbents this year need to arm themselves with a simple statistic: how often their Republican opponents voted with the White House. Now that so many GOP candidates are scrambling to distance themselves from BushCo, it can be doubly effective-- painting them as tireless supporters for failed policies, and as chickens refusing to stand by their records.

In his second and most recent TV ad, U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kennedy portrays himself as a Republican congressman who "crosses party lines," who opposed President Bush on one of his signature initiatives and who has co-sponsored bills with more than half of the Democrats in Congress. (. . .)

During 2001-2005, Kennedy has voted along with the majority of Republicans on about 95 percent of all partisan votes, according to the "party unity" measure, as tracked by Congressional Quarterly (CQ), a nonpartisan publication that focuses on Congress. (. . .)

In an interview Tuesday, Kennedy said that measuring how often he votes with other Republicans or in agreement with the Bush administration position in no way proves that he lacks independence.

That last bit is the only defense folks like Kennedy would have, and it's so aggressively stupid that it would only make them look worse.