Capitol Stupes?

With school out in Lake County, it's that time when educators assign final grades. In this case, the non-profit watchdog group Sunlight Foundation has assigned some grades to members of Congress:

Congress now speaks at almost a full grade level lower than it did just seven years ago, with the most conservative members of Congress speaking on average at the lowest grade level, according to a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of the Congressional Record using Capitol Words.
Is Congress getting dumber, or just more plainspoken?

(Because of poorly understood provisions in the redistricting laws, Lake County now has four sitting Congressmen.) The grades, based on their public statements, stack up like this ...

• Joe Walsh
  8.907015863
  
  
• Robert Dold
  10.43953638
  
  
• Peter Roskam
  11.03473829
  
  
• Randy Hultgren
  11.4451789

Members And Grade Level

The numbers represent the spoken grade level of each Congressman.

Arriving in at a solid 11th grade level, Randy Hultgren is the brainiac of the group. Joe Walsh nearly achieves a 9th grade level. Lucky for Walsh these are not actual school transcript numbers; otherwise he would be in summer school. (Your LakeCountyEye is not sure why the numbers are accurate to the ninth decimal, but that must no doubt be significant of something or whatever.)

A few blog posts were submitted, and Capitol Words assigned your LakeCountyEye a healthy 20.46577636 -- which is roughly equivalent to a PhD or two Masters degrees. Operatives are challenged to test their own verbal competence, if they dare!

The takehome of all this, of course, is that your particular Lake County representative in Congress may not be the quickest invertebrate on the House floor. For those not sure, your LakeCountyEye has compiled 10 indications that your Congressman spent more time than most dodging the truant officer.

Ten Signs a Lake County Congressman is Not Very Bright

Cannot smile for the cameras and chew gum at the same time. Thinks tuition for the Electoral College has become much too expensive. Nickname given by the press corps: Lake Forest Gump Can't get any of the Congressional Records to play on his iTunes. Believes Roe Versus Wade is a decision Washington had to make before crossing the Delaware. Fascinated by shiny objects. Fond of saying that Socialism is a system of government where one man exploits another man. Whereas Free Market Capitalism is just the opposite. Almost as dumb as a McHenry County Congressman. Signed the Grover Norquist Pledge. He, or members of his staff, read the LakeCountyEye!