PolitiFlub: "the deciding vote"

Usually I find myself highlighting PolitiFact's inconsistencies.  This item highlights a PolitiFact consistency, albeit it's consistent error.

A fresh story from PolitiFact rates Democrat Tim Kaine "False" for his claim that Republican George Allen cast the deciding vote in favor of the Bush tax cuts.  PolitiFact, as it has in the past when Republicans make such claims of Democrats, argues that it simply cannot be the deciding vote unless it breaks a tie in somewhat the same sense as the vice president breaks a tie in Senate voting.

I'm completely sympathetic to the counter argument of the Kaine campaign:

(I)f Allen had voted against the 2003 tax cuts, they would have failed by a 51-49 Senate vote.

Exactly!  And people understand this type of campaign advertisement in that sense.

In this case, at least, PolitiFact applies its misguided principles consistently.  Ineptitude squeezes out bias as the root of the problem.


Addendum:

This PolitiFact item from October 2010 appears to complete the set of items dealing with claims about "the deciding vote."  Kaine joins three Republicans in getting a raw deal on his claim, and joins Scott Bruun in getting a "False" rating for his claim.