We all have opinions about which well-known progressives we most respect, and in some cases, know personally and like. They may be politicians, academics, religious leaders, writers, or members of the media. My favorite progressive is probably Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, because we seem to agree on many issues. I also have a lot of respect for what Bobby Kennedy, Jim Hightower, Al Franken, and Michael Moore are doing for the progressive cause. You can probably name quite a few more. But did you ever wonder which conservative right-wing bloggers like the most? Is George Bush their godhead or does Rush Limbaugh command their respect?
It seems that the folks at Right Wing News wondered the same thing. They emailed over 200 right-of-center bloggers and asked them who they considered to be their favorite and least favorite conservatives. You can find the published results by John Hawkins at
http://www.rightwingnews.com/blogsel/rightfave.php
Bloggers were asked to list up to 12 living individuals as their favorite and least favorite conservatives. 52 of 215 bloggers identified conservatives that they respect or personally like. 47 of 200 bloggers identified conservatives they do not respect or like. Two individuals were excluded from the "least favorite" poll -- David Duke and Fred Phelps - who everybody concedes, nobody likes.
Results
Of the 53 conservatives named, about half were politicians, and the rest were media (journalists, writers, TV & radio personalities, bloggers) with a few academics and religious figures thrown in. Both the politicians and the media personalities had similar 60% positive ratings. Academics tended to be liked while religious figures were disliked, which sounds more like poll results from liberals than it does conservatives. The conservatives the bloggers voted for fell into three groups - those who received only positive votes, those who received only negative votes, and those who received both positive and negative votes.
Favorite Conservatives
Who was the bloggers' favorite conservative? Dubya? Rush? Turdblossom? No to all of those. It was Michelle Malkin, the Pennsylvania-born journalist of Filipino descent who asserts that our lax immigration rules allow terrorists to enter the country and that government should not be deterred from ethnic profiling by civil-liberties complaints. She was one vote ahead of George Bush and four votes ahead of Condoleeza Rice and Mark Steyn. The next three favorite conservatives were Thomas Sowell (18 votes), Jonah Goldberg (17 votes), and Dick Cheney (16 votes). Hugh Hewitt (13 votes) and Donald Rumsfeld (12 votes) were mentioned only about half as often as President Bush. Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson, and William F. Buckley each received ten votes. 17 other conservatives received votes, the most notable of which are Brit Hume (7 votes), Karl Rove and Rudy Giuliani (6 votes), Bill Kristol and Zell Miller (5 votes), and Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Jeb Bush (4 votes).
Loved/Hated Conservatives
Six conservatives received both positives and negative votes. Three conservatives received votes that were close to evenly split -- Sean Hannity (14 votes), Newt Gingrich (9 votes), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (8 votes). Rush Limbaugh received 19 votes, 74% of which were positive. John McCain received 25 votes, 84% of which were negative. The overall highest vote getter with 36 votes was the dreaded Ann Coulter. She received a vote, either positive or negative, from about two-thirds of the bloggers. 56% of her votes were negative, which makes one wonder what the other 44% were thinking.
Least Favorite Conservatives
18 conservatives received at least 4 negative votes and no positive votes. Pat Buchanan led the pack with 28 negative votes, followed by Pat Robertson (19.5 votes), Michael Savage (17 votes), Bill O'Reilly (16 votes), and Jerry Falwell (15 votes). Other notable disliked conservatives include Rick Santorum (8 votes), Bob Novak and Tucker Carlson (7 votes), and Tom DeLay (5 votes). So I guess Al Franken is right; Bill O'Reilly is neither very popular nor very well liked.
Analysis
Now, while I think there's some useful information in this poll, I have to wonder about a couple of things. Of the top four vote getters, two might be considered attractive women (Coulter & Malkin) and two might be considered traitors to conservatism or the Republican party (Buchanan & McCain). So, some responses might have reflected more than just respect. Remember, each blogger could name up to 12 conservatives. In fact, the bloggers averaged 6 conservatives they liked and 5 they didn't. I thought some missing names were also revealing. OK, Henry Kissinger is old news, I can understand that. But Zell Miller made the list and they liked him to boot. Scalia & Thomas made it but Rehnquist & Day O'Conner didn't. They like Richard Mellon Scaife's money, just not him. Where are names like Bill Frist, Denny Hastert, Grover Norquist, David Brooks, and Alan Greenspan? I guess that's the way it goes.
So what do you think about all this. If you could pick your favorite and least favorite progressives, who would you name?