Political Notebook

A dumbing down of Congress?

The Sunlight Foundation released a report today that finds the gradel level of congressional speeches has dropped from a high of 11.5 grade in 2005 to 10.6 grade level. It also analyzes what grade level members of Congress are speaking at when they take to the floor.

The researchers analyzed the complete Congressional Record since 1996 They used the Flesch-Kincaid test to do the analysis, which equates higher-grade levels with longer words and longer sentences.The member of Minnesota's congressional delegation with the lowest score was 5th District DFL Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis with a 9.3 grade level. Taking the top spot was 4th District DFL Rep. Betty McCollum from St. Paul. Below are the scores for the entire Minnesota congressional delegation from lowest to highest.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison: 9.3

GOP. Rep. Michele Bachmann: 9.52

DFL Sen. Al Franken: 9.98

DFL Rep. Tim Walz: 10.06

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar: 10.24

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson: 10.41

GOP Rep. John Kline: 11.09

GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack: 11.17

GOP. Rep. Erik Paulsen: 11.93

DFL Rep. Betty McCollum: 12.71

Walz rips Republicans who skipped Obama's speech

In an interview today, DFL Congressman Tim Walz blasted Republican members of Congress who skipped out on President Obama's job speech yesterday. He said he was particular disappointed that Minnesota Republican Congressman Chip Cravaack and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann did not show up.

"Not showing up to this speech is disrespectful to the office, disrespectful to the Congress and also not helpful," Walz said.

The Mankato school teacher added that "If my colleagues from several of the districts in Minnesota can't even take the time to attend the speech and are spending their time waiting to criticize right away, the American public is sick of that," he said.

The Star Tribune reports that Cravaack did not attend the speech. The article quotes Cravaack spokesman Michael Bars as saying in a statement that Cravaack “was huddling with his team listening carefully to the president’s speech.”

The article also reports that Bachmann missed the speed due to stormy weather but listened to the speech on the way in.

Walz added that "Every time President Bush spoke I was there."