Even in grief, Congress maintains its partisanship.
Both Democrats and Republicans issued statements mourning the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)'s death Monday. However, an analysis of all the press releases and tweets made available in LegiStorm's StormFeed database reveals that Democrats were much more likely to express sorrow toward their colleague than were Republicans.
By the end of the day, 55 members of Congress had issued press releases with statements of condolences, and 118 members had posted brief tributes on Twitter. Some 40 of those press releases and 80 of the Tweets were from Democrats, or roughly 70%.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Democrats and Republicans had different ways of paying homage to Lautenberg, who was ranked the sixth-most liberal senator earlier this year by National Journal. On Twitter, nine Democrats mentioned liberal causes that Lautenberg had championed over his career, such as environmental policies and gun control laws. From across the aisle, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) thanked Lautenberg for voting in favor of the Manchin-Toomey amendment as part of a larger gun control package that died in the Senate in April.
Toomey's statement notwithstanding, Republicans focused less on policy and more on Lautenberg's status as the Senate's last World War II veteran. Some 32% of Republican tweets mentioned World War II, while only 18% of Democrats acknowledged it.
This difference, however, was nearly erased in the more lengthy press releases, in which 67% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats mentioned World War II.
Still, the press releases showcased a divide, with Democrats more eager to talk about Lautenberg's policy work. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) described him as a "great progressive with a passion for fairness and justice." Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) praised him as "a tremendous partner on women's health issues, ... environmental protection and other issues critical to middle class families."
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), on the other hand, steered clear of politics, instead praising Lautenberg as "a patriot whose success in business and politics made him a great American success story," as did Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who called him "a real American hero."
The analysis was made much easier with LegiStorm's new service, StormFeed, which is the first service that collects all tweets and all press releases of Congress in real time. StormFeed now features more than 2 million tweets from members of Congress and their staff, as well as more than 425,000 press releases from the legislative, judicial and executive branches.
