Goli Ameri proposes the 90% test for Congress

The latest fundraising letter I received from Goli Ameri (Republican running against David Wu for the First District House seat), about which I commented on BlueOregon, got me to thinking some more about party loyalty. In the letter, Ms. Ameri says, “But let me tell you what, in my opinion, is the worst thing about David Wu’s philosophy. It’s not even his! Instead, it belongs to those who lead his party in Congress because David Wu votes more than 90% of the time with the very liberal leadership of the Democrat party.” The underlining is hers, not mine.

Here are some other possible explanations of why Congressman Wu votes with his party’s leadership:
1. The party helped him get elected, and he returns the favor.
2. Actually, the leadership is voting with him.
3. The leadership reflects the mainstream of the party, and he’s a mainstream Democrat.
4. Most of the votes in the House are uncontested (voting to adjourn for the summer) or inconsequential (e.g., declaring National Dragonfly Month) and so most of the representatives vote the same way most of the time. (I hvaen’t checked this, but it seems reasonable.)

If political parties mean anything in Congress, then most of the representatives should be voting with their party’s leadership — whom they after all select — most of the time. But if voting with the party leadership is a bad thing, as Ms. Ameri suggests, then she should promise that if elected she will vote with her party’s leadership less than 90% of the time, and praise John McCain’s independence from the party line. I’m not expecting to see either one anytime soon.