The Burlington Free Press today is hailing Senator Leahy as one of the most powerful in the Senate. The rankings are determined by an organization Congress.org who uses a Congress members position, influence and legislative activity as factors in determining a member of Congress' ranking.
In addition, the project team recognized that Members of Congress can exert or possess power that can’t be measured by these standard measures. Therefore, we created the "Sizzle/Fizzle" factor. For example, Sizzle factors can include a legislator’s unique background and experience (Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)) or relationships (Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)) or newfound popularity (Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)) that somehow adds weight to their power that is not scored in the other categories. In contrast, Fizzle factors can be applied to legislators who have seen their power diminish during the year, despite their position, due to scandal or other factors that impair the ability of the member to be effective. This was the only subjective criteria and was not weighted heavily in the overall ratings.
Rankings are separate for House and Senate.
Senator Leahy ranked #13. In summarizing their reasons for his ranking, Congress.org listed the following as contributing factors
• Long tenure or years in office in Congress can provide clout
• Member of Appropriations Committee
• Ranking member of a committee or subcommittee
• Member has good committee assignments that reflect greater influence or longer tenure
• Successfully passed one or more bills out of the House or Senate
• Successfully amended one or more bills on the floor of the House or Senate
In summarizing his qualities, the Free Press projects what they think is most important about Leahy
Lawmakers were judged in three categories: position, influence and legislation.
Leahy, who has been in office nearly 32 years, received high marks for being a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which decides how to spend billions of dollars of federal money. He brings millions home to Vermont each year for everything from defense contracts to the cleanup of Lake Champlain.
So to the Free Press, because Leahy is on the Appropriations Committee, he really knows how to bring home the pork.
But the big story is how low Representative Sanders is in the ratings. The Free Press mentions in passing the ranking of Rep Bernie Sanders which they say is 338. It is actually 339. Or, to put it another way, one of the least powerful members of Congress even though he's been there for 16 years.
He is rated -1 (that is negative 1) on the Influence scale and 3 on the Legislation scale. In fact, it seems the only reason his ranking is no lower is that he's been in the House a long time.
Here is a man who has been in Congress for 16 years and his influence is such that people want to avoid him. It appears that according to Congress.org, Representative Sanders has the "fizzle", not "sizzle"
Bet he won't be advertising that during his campaign to become part of Vermont's Senate delegation.
