If Lieberman was closer to the Republican presidential candidate, George Bush, than to the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, we would expect him to be much further to the right along the left-right spectrum. In fact, his voting record is quite similar to Gore's, and both are ideologically just to the right of the typical Democrat. In contrast, the received wisdom about Cheney is right on the mark. His congressional voting record reveals him to be far more conservative than the typical House Republican of the late 1980s, with just eleven GOP colleagues to his right. Of course, Cheney's last votes in the House were cast almost a dozen years ago, and Al Gore's congressional voting record effectively ended eight years ago.
Time passes, context changes, and issues evolve.
While amassing these voting records, all three of them represented constituencies much smaller than the nation they would represent if elected in November. We make no claim that these roll call histories perfectly represent what they now believe or what they would advocate in a Republican or Democratic administration. And they reveal nothing about their legislative styles or ability to work effectively with members of both parties. Nonetheless, we offer these data in hopes of providing a useful corrective or supplement to the current debate. For ease of presentation, legislators are also placed above or below the horizontal line, based on a second dimension of roll call voting not shown here.