SAY IT LOUD, I'M LIBERAL AND PROUD!

While Ohio conservatives were undoubtedly gnashing their teeth and planning their attack ads, some Ohioans were proud to learn last week that in their latest rankings of Congress from most liberal to most conservative, the National Journal found that Sherrod Brown was the most liberal U.S. Senator — just like the Republicans told us in their ads back in 2006 (and he won by a large margin anyway, so apparently Ohioans don’t mind). The rankings are based on 99 key Senate votes and 97 key House votes in the past year.

The state to be glad you don’t live in is Oklahoma, whose Senator James Inhofe was rated the most conservative; his colleague, Tom Coburn, is the fourth most conservative. Kentucky also placed both its Senators — Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell — in the top 10 most conservative. As for George Voinovich, he ranked fairly “liberal” — for a Republican. At No. 62, only three other Republicans fell to his left. (We still say he's a partisan hack.)

On the House side, Marcia Fudge was rated Ohio’s most liberal congressperson, coming in 12th, while House Minority Leader John Boehner, from Ohio’s 8th district, was its most conservative, at 417 out of 435 House members. Among other Northeast Ohioans, Betty Sutton ranked 35, Dennis Kucinich ranked 160, John Boccieri ranked 224 and the area’s lone Republican Steve LaTourette (who recently admitted — indeed bragged about — working with President Obama) ranked 262. — Anastasia Pantsios