How hard would it be to measure the moderacy of today’s Congress, and tomorrow’s Congressional candidates? I’ve seen people tend to depict far right as Delay, far left as Kennedy, and moderate as McCain, Lieberman, etc. Where do the rest fit? Evan Bayh? Fred Thompson? Bill Frist? Dianne Feinstein? Barbara McCulskey? Hillary Clinton? Barack Obama? John Edwards? Patrick Leahy? Ron Paul?

Obviously this is a tough thing to visualize for various reasons. If there’s an ordering, it can vary widely according to the issue of interest. A steadfast elephant on abortion may suddenly turn stalwart donkey on gun control, etc. Furthermore, not all Congresscritters have a big stake in every issue; some care deeply about, say, labor unions, but tend to follow other experts’ leads on, say, science funding.

Not that I’ve looked very hard, but I’ve never seen any website where, if you name the issue, you could see (a) who its most ardent players are, and (b) where they stand; and additionally, for any officeholder, (a) what their big issues are, and (b) where they stand. At a glance. Even better, with links to past arguments made on the floor, and votes cast, as backup data. There are sites that attempt to give every politician’s stand on every issue, summarized as what they’ve said pertaining to that issue, but getting a sense of positions of several hundred people at once would still require painstaking research.

Meanwhile, as Donklephant, you could play the role of Moderate Underground – playing up moderate Dems over hardline Reps, and moderate Reps over hardline Dems. Sway some votes, and get a more moderate Congress and White House.

Any word on who is likely to rise up in place of the others? Visionary leaders; uniters and bridge-builders; independent thinkers, let’s hope.

Quite possibly. Something tells me that after Bush’s strong push to the right, the next 12 years will be about moderate politics that more closely align with the political leanings of the other 60%.

Chaffee, on the other hand — feckless and fickle as he can be — would represent a loss to the collective weight of the barely-there moderate GOP in Congress. I’d hate to see him go for that reason alone.

Any word on who is likely to rise up in place of the others? Visionary leaders; uniters and bridge-builders; independent thinkers, let’s hope.