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Morning Topic: McCain Complains About Congressional Recess After he has Missed 367 Votes |
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So last week, as the Congress was set to recess for their traditional Independence Day week-long break, McCain complained:
McCain took Congress to task for taking a July 4 recess without completing action on a housing rescue plan, calling it “incredible that Congress should go on vacation while Americans are trying to stay in their homes.”
Now last I checked, John McCain was still a Senator from Arizona. Yet the last time he actually showed up for his job and voted was April 8th. He is the Senator who has missed the most votes, despite the fact that Senators Obama and Clinton were still deeply involved in a primary battle long after McCain had secured the GOP nomination. In fact, as of last Wednesday, McCain had missed 367 votes (61.4% of the total) during the 110th Congress. Now missing most votes when running for President is not unusual — but rather the norm. But if McCain thinks that the Housing Reform bill is that important, then instead of travelling to Colombia and Mexico this week, he should have gone to Washington and helped negotiate the bill. He did not. Instead he is complaining about others travelling and not finishing a bill in which he decided to have no role.
Meanwhile, according to the Department of Labor, 62,000 people lost their jobs in June.
This is that same Sen. McBane who swore - when the 109th congress brought a huge appropriations bill up for a vote in the wee hours when no one could possibly read it, almost missing a provision that would have given access to IRS records of any citizen with only the committee chairman, or a designate of the chairman, giving permission - that that would never happen again, that adequate time would be given for consideration of legislation. It happened again, not a peep from the Maverique. During the 109th, legislative weeks were three days long.
When senators run for president, they tend to miss votes. This is how John Kerry was labeled “the most liberal” senator of the year when he was running. I am most certainly not a fan of John McCain, but drop the double standard. If a senator is busy campaigning for higher office they will miss sessions. Period. Regardless of what party the candidate belongs to.
Full disclosure: I am quite drunk right now, and I don’t feel like wading though all of Reddit’s comments [which is how I found this blog]. Feel free to discount my opinion because of this, but honestly, find better arguments against the man.
The criticism is not about McCain missing votes per se — it is that he misses more votes than anyone else and then complains that Congress is recessing for a week over the traditional 4th of July break. If he really thought the issue was that important he could at least show up in Washington once and try to do something about the issue.
Shouldn’t Congress be a MANDATORY VOTING POSITION? We elect individuals to represent our collective voices, and someone has the gall to miss an overwhelming number of vote casts? Even voting by proxy is better than not voting at all. No excuses for this. I understand the rigors of campaigning for higher office, but continually assigning higher precedence to your current duty, is a dereliction, and therefore should be removed from their position. Just because I look for a better job while at my current job, if I were to disregard my duties, I would be FIRED, wouldn’t you?
I have followed the voting responsibilities of the candidates for the past 9 months, and none of those considered “top tier”, had a very shining record of votes. http://www.govtrack.us/
Since his start 2 years ago Barack has missed 294 votes. What do we pay these guys for again ???
Barack says “America is no longer of what it could be, what it was and I don’t want that for my children.”
Well, where the hell was Barack for 294 votes ? He wants change. BUT when he has had the chance in the past, where was he 294 times ??? Sure throw stones at McCain, but don’t act like Barack is perfect.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/
http://www.nepalibwatch.com
I don’t think anyone is acting like Obama is perfect; I for one wish he would take stronger stances in the Senate, and show up more often. This is the problem with senators running for president.
But by your own math, McCain is much, much worse. He’s in a league of his own, I’d say.
Never assume McCain is in a league of his own until you check Biden, Dodddd and Clinton. And yes i agree, these dopes should do their jobs. They make more in 1 year than most do in 3.
Give us a link.
NEPA — you miss the point. As I said in the post, Presidential candidates can be assumed to miss votes as they run — but then they shouldn’t complain about the folks in Congress that are actually working on these issues and voting when they take a long-standing 4th of July recess. McCain is being a hypocrite.