How would you classify Sens. Max Baucus, Jeff Bingaman, and Kent Conrad?

Erza Klein: “This is who is in the room helping Baucus put together his bill. Olympia Snowe, Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, Jeff Bingaman, and Kent Conrad. In a Senate of 60 Democrats and 40 Republicans, the health-care reform bill is being written by three centrist Democrats, one centrist Republicans, and two conservative Republicans.”

I realize ACU ratings aren’t a perfect measuring stick, but Bingaman’s lifetime rating is 11.71 and his rating in 2008 was 0. That makes him a centrist? Conrad’s is 19.57, and he, too, scored a 0 in 2008. Baucus’s lifetime rating is 14 and he rated an 8 in 2008.

Using the National Journal ratings for 2008, Conrad was the 59th most conservative member of the Senate, Baucus was the 64th, Bingaman the 93rd.

In ACU ratings, Grassley has a lifetime rating of 88, Enzi 92, even though I’d argue that conservatives don’t necessarily think of either of those guys when they think of “their guys” in the Senate. (The National Journal rating backs Klein’s interpretation on Enzi, at least; they rank Grassley the 19th most conservative member of the Senate.)