Lampson's head fakes to the right not convincing

Addendum: The Wartime Consigliere has a similiar take on this piece. (Except his last graph is hopelessly wrong.)

The Houston Chronicle has a "look Nick's really a moderate" spin piece today by Michelle Mittelstadt out of their Washington Bureau who is not usually this gullible.

What's really happening here is Queen Nancy Pelosi is a pragmatist. She knows the 42 Dem "majority makers", like Lampson, got swept into office in 2006 from traditionally conservative (and GOP) districts. So, she's given those boys a "wink and a nod" to allow them to occassionally stray from the fold when one of two things is going to happen: 1) The Dems don't have enough votes to pass the measure anywayp or 2) It's a measure they don't really care that much about anyway. Pelosi is providing some political cover.

Then, these Dems can trot back home (or in his case over to the home paper's bureau writer) and spin a tale about how "I'm not going to be afraid to go against the party." It's their only hope of surviving in 2008. It might play somewhere else. But not in CD22.

On the votes that really count, and that CD22 voters care about, Tricky Nick was solidly with the libs -- where he's most comfortable.

Let’s not be fooled. The man has a fairly solid liberal voting record in the House. He had an 85% lifetime rating from Americans for Democratic Action, a left-wing group, and a 21% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. That’s not Ted Kennedy liberal, but it’s pretty far from conservative or even moderate. Lampson may be decent at pretending to be middle-of-the-road, but when push comes to shove he’s the kind of guy who falls in with the party line.

Need more? Let's not forget who some of Nick's biggest money supporters have been: screenwriter and producer Norman Lear - founder of the far-left People for the American Way - actor and director Rob Reiner, Barbara Streisand. Also, Move-on.org has coughed up $168,000 to help him get elected and stay there.