(FORTUNE Magazine) – Claiborne Pell? The Senator from Outer Space? He's the most liberal guy in the senior chamber? Surely Dr. Keeping Up jests in averring, in the box on the next page, that Pell's liberalism scores exceeded those of Teddy Kennedy (who came in second), Alan Cranston, Paul Simon, and all the other world-class unsound thinkers mentioned in the elaborate puzzle presented in last fortnight's issue. (Each one's score was obtained by adding the rankings he received, on a scale of 0 to 100, from the three leading liberal pressure groups.) We are not kidding. When the voting was over, the winner was indeed the spaced-out Rhode Island aristocrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a solon thitherto mainly famous for being an honest politician from Rhode Island and also for his exchanges with gurus and holy men about the possibility that there is life after death. An interesting question is whether his legendary probity is explained by his interest in the hereafter. Anyway, he beat out Teddy fair and square, 277 to 276, while the eight other dirigiste Democrats trailed the field. To be sure, Kennedy could have won if he'd been healthy. He blew at least five points, and therefore his winning chances, by getting sick and missing the March 29, 1988, vote on cloture. This was when the Senate's liberals were trying to shut off debate on S.79, a bill that would have created a new bureaucracy charged with annually identifying 100,000 to 300,000 workers in industries handling toxic chemicals and notifying them of their allegedly risky status, after which they would be entitled to periodic medical checkups paid for by their companies. Pell, of course, was for the motion. Evidencing a lifelong habit of not consulting Milton Friedman before he votes, Claiborne was also for the bill that makes it harder to close down unprofitable plants, for legislation requiring the Pentagon to ''buy American,'' for protection for the shoe industry, for an increase in the minimum wage, and for a ''pay equity'' bill that would have guaranteed equal remuneration for all female federal employees judged to be doing work of comparable worth to that done by the guys. Furthermore, he was against the death penalty for drug-related murders, against aid to the contras, and for getting a little more friendly -- but not too friendly -- with Cuba. Wait. That last one was not exactly voted on in the Senate. It comes from a New York Times interview, wherein Claiborne was asked for his ideas on foreign policy and said he wanted more normal relations with Cuba, while not getting ''palsy-walsy.'' There's a nuance for you. Incidentally, he really is called the Senator from Outer Space -- a reference to a certain weirdness of manner widely noted over the years. A famous story is about the time an aide bought him a pair of galoshes and mentioned that they were from Thom McAn. ''Do tell Mr. McAn that I'm much obliged,'' Pell said earnestly. He once told an interviewer from Interview that he would prefer to keep on living ''unless I become convinced that the afterlife is more pleasant than the present life, and of that I am not absolutely sure.'' If only he had a little doubt about his economics. Oh, yes, we also promised the answer to that puzzle about who loves Alan. The answer, obviously, is Gwen. At least it will seem obvious after you look up the solution in the March-April issue of The Sciences.