Capitol Words “lets you see what are the most popular words spoken by lawmakers on the House and Senate floor.”  It uses the Congressional Record to give “you an at-a-glance view of which issues lawmakers address on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis,” by “Congress as a whole, by state delegation or by specific lawmaker” including trends over time.

Who says “Kyoto” the most?  Why that would be Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL), 94 times in the past two years — more than double that of the next 9 members combined.  In second place, way behind, is John Kerry (D-MA) with a mere 16.

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“IPCC“?  Inhofe 87 times, next 9 members combined, 48.  Kind of sobering since the IPCC is supposed to be a body whose work is cited by those seeking to advance climate action in this country (see “Has the IPCC rendered itself irrelevant?“)

But I seriously doubt you’ll guess which member of Congress has used the phrase “cap-and-trade” most.  Or “caribou.”  Or “hell.”

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Sen. John Thune (R-SD) used cap-and-trade 41 times beating out Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) with 35.  Interestingly, Thune’s most commonly used words in the last two years (ignoring all the common, little words like “the”), are

  1. 243 energy
  2. 205 billion
  3. 184 country
  4. 180 percent
  5. 177 tax
  6. 173 dakota

Inhofe’s favorite word is “billion” too.  I assume this is conservatives declaiming against the excesses of federal government spending.  Where were they from 2001 through 2006?

As for caribou, that would be Rep. Steve King (R-IA) — who knew that Iowa had so many reindeer?  Heck, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) only used the word 12 times.

As for “hell” … that would be Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), whose favorite word is “service.”

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So, go ahead, waste some time on Capitol Words, and let me know if you find anything interesting.