Chronic Absenteeism in Congress
There’s a title in front of John McCain’s name: Senator. But does he really deserve it? Since January 2007, he’s missed 63 percent of the votes held in the Senate. The last time he was present for a vote was April 8.
Of course it takes a lot of time to campaign for president. Barack Obama has missed 20 votes in the last 20 days. But Obama has actually missed relatively few, and has made a point of showing up for Senate votes every few weeks. He hasn’t let three months go by at a time.
There’s one reason in particular that McCain’s chronic absenteeism has me irked. Despite being a no-show for many important votes, he’s still getting his Senate salary. Since the last time McCain actually voted in the Senate, he’s earned $51,345.08, according to a post this morning at Daily Kos. I can’t think of any other job where you could keep getting paid even if you didn’t show up for 16 weeks.
This is phony crap. It comes up every election and nothing is ever done about it. We waste our time and take our eyes off the issues that matter. It is my understanding they can be docked but they run the show so what the heck can you do.
While John McCain’s absenteeism is upsetting, and hardly a trait I would want from POTUS, what annoys me more is the senates willful allowance of such behavior.
Sen. Rick Bacchanalian (/B/) from Colorado went four plus months without voting in the “O” forums. He neglected to weigh in on crucial bench point issues as well as H.o.D. distribution for resist gear. When he did log time, he would just whine about having trouble finding a five man commitee to go over content that was at the time of his complaint, was long past relevant. I’m talking about instances best left for alts and junior members. (Not to mention he lobbied for respec reembursment)
This is hardly the behaviour I would expect from a former GM.
Now I am to understand that he is currently sitting in as C.E.O of Stimulous of E.V.E. and is using WAR as an escape.
What a mess.