McCain Misses 60% Of Senate Votes

Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) didn't find time in his busy campaign schedule Thursday to make it back to the Capitol for votes on money for Iraq and Afghanistan as well as new educational benefits for veterans that he opposes. After all, even though he has been quite outspoken on the new GI Bill and even pushed a competing bill of his own, he still has to, um, win the Republican nomination (isn't Ron Paul still running??). And, apparently, he had to campaign and raise money in that pivotal swing state, California.

McCain's absence helped cement his lead in one key category over his potential Democratic opponents and every other Senator -- missed votes.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[KathyNicholas]

Clinton has taken Kentucky and Obama is right there in Oregon.
The Democratic race for nomination is still very much alive – and most likely to be decided by superdelegates – as CNN points out clearly

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/20/primary.wrap/index.html

If you’re tired of waiting around for those super delegates to make a decision already, go to LobbyDelegates.com and push them to support Clinton or Obama

If you haven't done so yet, please write a message to each of your state's superdelegates at http://www.lobbydelegates.com

Obama Supporters:

Sending a note to current Obama supporters lets them know it's appreciated, sending a note to current Clinton supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Obama, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Obama. It's that easy...

Clinton Supporters too …. !

It takes a moment, but what's a few minutes now worth to get Clinton in office?! Those are really worth !

Sending a note to current Clinton supporters lets them know it's appreciated, sending a note to current Obama supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Clinton, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Clinton. It's that easy...

[republiscum]

Mccain is delusional just like bush...REpublicans are ANTI MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS...check this link out>
http://therealmccain.com/?utm_source=rgemail

[fourex]

And like GW Bush he will miss NIE's on terrorists threats. RIF, it saves lives.

[CrazyDogLady]

How about a little "Pay for Performance" here...Since our elected officials our get paid with our tax dollars I would think if they got paid based on their voting percentage they might have more incentive to actually do their jobs and vote...

So with the current salary of the Senate being: $169,300 the 2008 here are the adjusted salaries based on job performance:

McCain: $67,730 (missed 60% votes)
Obama: $98, 532 (missed 41.8% of votes)
Clinton: $115,632 (missed 31.7% of votes)

[BethStuart]

Recently, I noticed that McCain often had no official events scheduled for the day every few days. This was not the case with Clinton and Obama. My sense is that McCain is simply tired.

[rabbi79]

So what does Bush have to say about this?
I seem to recall him mocking John Kerry repeatedly in 2004 about how he should get to back to Washington and do his job.

[Teritt]

My guess is Bush would say 'there are those that say...huh?'

[Stirner]

Damned right Ron Paul is still in the running! The neoconned Republican lobby-fed fat-cats had better get used to the idea that they have turned off and angered over one million Republican voters. Their obvious and disgusting efforts to ridicule and silence the only Republican voice supporting our Constitution will be remembered. Yes, the neoconned Republicans might win McCain's nomination. But one is here reminded the reply of a Greek General when, at a great cost to his army, a Roman army was defeated. He simply replied -- "One more victory like this and we have lost the war."

[realtalk]

NOT AT ALL SURPRISED, HE IS SUCH A PHONY, HYPOCRITE!!

[lvdragonlady]

Gee I wonder how much of his presidency he would miss if he were to be elected?

[VOTER]

At least 60%....................

NAPPING!

[Birdman]

Can't be any worse then Bush he has missed one whole year out of the 7 so far. Imagine having a job where you had over 7 weeks of vacation a year. No employer I know of has that, and if a person took of that much time off, their employer would have fired them for lack of attendence. Gee I wonder why the american people did not excercise this very same option. I guess we have a low standard for job performance to allow an employee of ours to spend so much time away from their job.

[beboy]

Why not make the headline, "McCain, Obama and Clinton in top 5 for missing votes." That might be more fair, but this is the Obama, er, Huffington Post.

[nomobull]

does not change the fact that mccain missed the most .

[RJII]

He has to change his diapers regularly. Ok that was mean.
He's 71, he has trouble parking the RV infront the Capital. Ok the was wrong.
He's old damnit, he's almost "grave ready", give pawpaw a break!

[BigLib]

He could just vote "present" like Barry does.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

Who is Barry? He voted present in the US Senate over 60% of the time?

[Teritt]

I think you're confused, Tif - his 'present' vote that got all the press was when he was in the IL Senate, not the US Senate.

[Nolewoman]

Yes, please enlighten us. Who is this Barry that voted "present" in the US Senate all these many times. Inquiring minds want to know.

[UrbanInterloper]

President Obama, the only candidate who ran on a platform solidly based upon the concepts of good government and open, accountable government, should immediately make it impossible to miss votes in Congress simply because you're not physically present.

Hello, it's 2008 and there's something called the internet! There is absolutely no reason at all why every single congressperson cannot cast his or her vote remotely and securely, no matter where they are on the globe. If they want to abstain from that vote, fine, but make them own that decision. This is not 1776 anymore.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

That's called being a maverick, losers.

Being a maverick means you get 60% of the time off from taking a stand.

[NoahVail]

This is unfair. He always shows up when there is a big mining bill, or a relaxation of trade barriers, or when they want to reinstate taxes on the rich. His lobbyists keep him well informed of what is going on.