McCain Skipping Most Votes Among '08 Senators: Only 3 In Last Month

Though most of them flew cross-country last week to cast key votes on Iraq, the Senators doubling as White House hopefuls haven't spent much time in Congress lately -- and the chamber is poised to be an even less familiar place to them come December.

As one Republican leadership aide put it: "The December legislative calendar will look like Swiss cheese because we're going to have to work around the candidates' schedules."

In the past month alone, the five Senate presidential candidates each have earned the distinction of missing more votes than they've made. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lapped the field, having voted just three times since Oct. 23 -- twice on the narrowly approved nomination of Leslie Southwick to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and once against cloture on the State Children's Health Insurance Program bill.

The four Democrats have done only marginally better than McCain, with their numbers padded after taking the red-eye after Thursday's Las Vegas debate to catch a trio of Senate votes Friday morning. Two of those votes centered on funding for the Iraq War, while the third sought to close off debate on the pending farm bill (critical to first-caucus-state Iowans).

Still, the bragging rights for Democrats seem to stop there. Based on information compiled on a washingtonpost.com database, Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.) cast just five -- or 22 percent -- of the 23 votes in the past four weeks; Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has showed up for six of the 23 roll calls -- 26 percent -- and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has made seven, or 30 percent, of the votes.

Top among them is Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), who has made nine of 23 votes in the past month, or 39 percent.

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Comments

[rh654]

Hey - a politician who if elected - might leave us all the hell alone - I like that.

The less politicians to "help us all" the better!

[research]

Hasn't McCain had a stroke? His lip sags, and about a year ago he became very "fuzzy".

Retire McCain.

[wndrwrthg]

Their salaries should be based on their votes. At the end of the year, tally up the number of pieces of legislation, divide that into their current salary to get a per vote cost. Then factor the number of votes that were made and you have their wages for the year. Abstaining from voting counts as a missed vote, and there are no excuses for missing a vote. Their job is enact legislation and any missed votes is defrauding the electorate.

[gappytoofcondi]

Between running for office and the book writing deals, there isn't sufficient time to do their jobs. Just another form of robbery by our elected officials. Meanwhile, if they did show up, not too much would change. After all, the decider is is charge!


Wonder what would happen to any person who worked for a company with these attendance figures? See ya, wouldn't want to be ya.

[Colmore]

Must be nice to not have to worry about your medical insurance, while not showing up to do your JOB. What the HELL are taxpayers paying them for? Why do we need them, if the country is running itself? In a private sector job, they would all have been fired, lost their medical coverage. Maybe it would be a good thing for them to face the reality most of us live with, while paying their wages and insurance.

[ljsfolly]

Although running for an office to be a partner of sorts to Congress it seems that the office they already hold in Congress that they are now elected to takes a back seat so far back that they don't pay much attnetion to it. If we could put all together a listing of the missed votes and the issues represented of those votes missed we might have an idea of where these politicians stand on these issues and maybe others. In the real world you do your job you are paid for before/while you seek a new job.

[wadenelson1]

The more votes this man skips the less damage he can do.