Why do so many Republicans vote like squishes, often siding with Democrats on issues — or at least not voting with conservatives in the House?The most common theory is that these Republicans are in tight races in swing districts. They have to sometimes cross the aisle. They have to sometimes vote like squishes just to stay elected.The Madison Project this morning is completely blowing up that common and oft repeated theory.

Today the Madison Project introduced its Hall of Shame.What they did was pretty simple. They took the Cook measure of the partisan of a district, stacked it with the voting records of members of Congress, and found a startling list of Republican congressmen from solidly Republican and conservative areas who don’t really vote like conservatives.You will not be surprised to learn that Don Young (RINO-AK) is the worst offender of the bunch.What’s really surprising is how people like Frank Lucas of Oklahoma and Michael Simpson of Idaho are on the list. Their districts are R+24 and R+17 respectively.For the tea party, the Madison Project just handed you a list of people to absolutely beat in primaries without having to deal with the “but . . . but . . . you’ll hand the seat to a Democrat” line so many want to hurl.This is some of the most useful data to come out this political season. About the only draw back is that most of the primaries are over. We’ll need to hold on to this data for 2014.