Carolyn McCarthy is an admirable advocate for gun control and has created much good out of a family tragedy that would have immoblized most others in the same position.

A progressive though? Not so much. . .

She ran on the Democratic line in 1996 but only after the New York GOP rebuffed her when she announced her intentions to challenge then-Rep. Dan Frisa in a primary. The Democrats wisely recruited her and she flipped the seat in the 1996 election. That didn't stop her from having conversations with the GOP about returning to her roots in 1998. Furthermore, though she was caucusing with the Democrats in Congress, she didn't officially change her voter registration from "R" to "D" until 2002. Six years after she was elected.

The fact that she waited until 2002 is somewhat ironic considering she was one of 82 House Democrats to support the 2002 Iraq War resolution. Now many luminaries in the party, along with some committed progressives like John Kerry, made that mistake, so I'd be open to cutting her some slack.

Then I found this piece titled "Breaking ranks on Iraq", Newsday, dated June 17, 2006, written by J. Jhoni Palmer:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ nation/ny-ushous174785265jun17,0,4181826 .story

The first paragraph reads:

"Breaking ranks with the bulk of her party, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was one of only two New York Democrats to vote in favor of a contentious Iraq war resolution that passed the House Friday on a mostly party-line decision."

The resolution, H.Res 861, was supported by noted progressives like Dan Lipinski (IL), Gene Taylor (MS), Jim Marshall (GA) and Charlie Melancon (LA), 36 other Democrats (mostly of the Blue Dog variety), and all but three members of the House Republican caucus.

McCarthy told at Newsday at the time,

"While the Republicans' cynical attempt to boost their approval ratings is transparent, there is nothing in this resolution that is objectionable. . .I decided to ignore the Republicans' efforts to politicize this important issue and vote in favor of the legislation".

Um. . .weren't we trying to wrest Congress from the clutches of Republican cynicism during that time?

2/3 of the members of the House Democratic caucus were certainly trying to and most of the 42 who voted in favor of the Republican scare resolution represented pro-war districts.

Maybe that's it. Perhaps she was in a Kirsten Gillibrand type situation where she was representing a district where anti-war views would be unacceptable. With her gun control activism, she may have to make a few concessions, right? Let's go back to Jhoni Miller's fine reporting from Newsday, 6/17/2006:

"Most of the Democrats voting yes hail from swing districts, are freshmen, represent military facilities or tend to lean conservative. But McCarthy, an economically moderate and socially liberal Democrat who represents a district that voted overwhelmingly against President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, doesn't fall into any of those categories.

McCarthy acknowledged that her vote might cause her political headaches back home, but said she felt it was the right thing to do."

Look, I understand this is a personal crusade for Rep. McCarthy. She said as much on MSNBC this evening. That said, it would be folly for her (and for us) to cast herself as some sort of progressive heroine. The record certainly says otherwise.

We need to be very careful and take a holistic approach in examining these candidates' records before we declare one or the other the victor or villain of the cause.

There have been more than a few occasions in the political life of Carolyn McCarthy where she has played the latter role.