America's North Shore Journal

They Can’t Be bothered

Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) has missed 162 votes in the House this year – 85 percent of the total … Gephardt has missed every vote on energy-related issues this session. House records show Gephardt also missed votes on other issues that are frequent themes in his presidential candidacy, including welfare reform, human cloning, healthcare, homeland security, education and tax cuts…

Other Democratic presidential aspirants also have missed votes, but to a lesser degree than Gephardt. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) failed to add his voice in 63 instances this year, 34 percent of Senate votes. (Not included in this total are two votes he missed in February due to prostate surgery.)

Last Thursday, when the Senate considered the House version of President Bush’s global AIDS initiative, Kerry used a floor debate to decry a provision in the legislation that required 33 percent of funds to be spent on abstinence education.

“We should not tie the president’s hands … I will support an amendment to strike this earmark.”

Later in the day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed just such an amendment. Kerry missed the vote on the proposal, which failed 45-52…

Other Democratic presidential hopefuls have also missed a number of votes. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) has missed 22 percent, or 40 votes this year. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has been absent from 12 percent, or 22 votes…

Sen. Bob Graham, (D-Fla.), who announced his candidacy earlier this month, has missed six percent of votes, a figure that does not include 16 votes in January from which he was absent due to heart surgery. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) led the entire pack of Democratic hopefuls by missing only one roll call vote.

As of Friday, there have been 191 House votes and 183 Senate votes in the 108th Congress this year.

From The Hill

Isn’t this lovely?