Booker > Kaine

Although he probably won’t be selected, Corey Booker is apparently at least somewhat in the running for Clinton’s VP slot. I’ve been having this argument with a lot of people for a while — including, at least back in the day, Brother Loomis — but can I note that Booker has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate? Part of the difference between Booker (7th most liberal) and Kaine (41st) is political context. But not all of it — Booker has a more liberal voting record than Schumer or Gillibrand or Lautenberg. He’s been a leader on criminal justice reform. Sure, he has bad views on educational policy, but among elite liberals (including the one in the White House) this is the more the rule than the exception; I’m not sure why he gets singled out or how this could be some kind of dealbreaker. And, yes, he said some dumb (although not really policy-related) stuff about his Wall Street friends. But overall he’s been a more-than-solid liberal vote. This may be, in part, because he’s a young ambitious pol who sees which way the winds are blowing, but who cares? I’d still rather have Perez, but assuming that NJ Dems have a plausible candidate to replace him in November, he’d be a better pick than Kaine. And I still have no idea where the idea that Booker is another Lieberman or something comes from.