Paul Kengor: Conor Lamb and Pa.’s political 'moderates'

I watched last Friday to see how Rep. Conor Lamb would vote on a bill that the bishops of his church called “the most radical abortion bill of all time.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bishop described the Women’s Health Protection Act as “nothing short of child sacrifice.” But given how Lamb typically votes — that is, strict adherence to his party’s line — I expected he would support the bill. And he did. Along with literally almost every single Democrat in Congress.

Once upon a time, there would have been many Democrats joining Republicans in voting against such a bill, including Sen. Joe Biden, who for decades in the U.S. Senate supported the Hyde Amendment. But now, the idea of a pro-life Democrat in Congress is nearly extinct. About 10 years ago, there were a handful. Now, there’s less still.

That’s a reflection of the party’s overall drift. Today’s typical congressional Democrat, even most claiming to be moderate, plainly are not.

Conor Lamb is in that category. He’s a Democrat who has twice gotten elected as a moderate in a district that leans Republican. And yet what’s striking about Lamb, especially since his reelection last November, has been his strict adherence to the party line on nearly every vote. And that’s not an anecdotal assessment. It’s quantifiable.

The American Conservative Union has a well-known ranking system for Congress. On a score of 0 to 100, it ranks members for how conservative or liberal they are. A perfect liberal gets a 0, whereas a perfect conservative scores 100. A moderate scores around 50. Overall, Congress ranks at 45, precisely what one would expect of a Congress with a few more Democrats than Republicans. The ACU’s system is quite good.

How does Lamb rank? His rating is a 9. And that extremely liberal ranking hasn’t been fully updated in light of most recent votes. The number will edge further down, closer to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pelosi. Even as Lamb portrays himself to voters as someone who will not rubber-stamp Pelosi’s agenda.

What’s frustrating about this is not that Lamb is clearly a leftist politician. A liberal is a liberal, a conservative is a conservative. They are what they are. AOC and Bernie and Pelosi run as leftists, which is what they are; their voters get what they vote for. What’s frustrating is that Lamb frames himself as a moderate, which he clearly is not.

The same is true for another Pennsylvania politician, Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who has long campaigned as a moderate in the mold of his father, who was indeed a moderate, especially on abortion. The senior Casey was the country’s leading pro-life Democrat. And yet Casey Jr. ranks a 7 in the ACU’s rankings. He’s to the left of Lamb.

By contrast, Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who runs as a free-market conservative, has an ACU rating of 93. Toomey doesn’t falsely portray himself to voters. He campaigns as a free-market conservative and proceeds to act as one.

As for Lamb, if he wants to portray himself as a moderate, then he needs to start voting like one. His record bespeaks something very different. Political moderation has long had a place in Pennsylvania politics. But the likes of Lamb (and Casey) are not representing it.