As the Rocky Mountain News reports:
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer didn’t win any gold stars for perfect attendance during his last year in Congress.
In 2002, when Schaffer’s self-imposed, six-year term limit was running out, he missed about one in every eight votes, starting with the first “quorum call” of the year.
Schaffer’s 13 percent absentee rate that year was more than two times his career average – about 5 percent…
Most of the votes were lopsided or unanimous. But there were weighty matters mixed in with the symbolic or procedural measures.
Among others, Schaffer missed final votes on legislation promoting peace in war-torn Sudan, a vote to make payments to the families of fallen soldiers exempt from taxes, an amendment to block some oil drilling off the coast of California and legislation that sought to replace the Immigration and Naturalization Service with a new agency.
The article goes on to point out that opponent Mark Udall has missed a number of votes this session, but that’s understandable since he’s running for Senate. Schaffer had no such excuse as a lame-duck congressman.
It’s common knowledge that as Schaffer’s self-imposed term limit approached in 2002, he was a little depressed about it. These missed votes are certainly a reflection of that, but also maybe an indicator of his how he deals with less-than-ideal situations generally: by mentally clocking out?
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What IS Udall’s absent rate?
I don’t want to see anyone in the US Senate more than Rep. Udall, but I detest public officials taking time off from their elected office to run for elected office.
a little less than 1/2 Schaffer’s absentee rate
Or Hillary’s, or McCain’s for that matter?
This kind of statement in particular makes the post seem a little one sided.
Obviously if we assume that OQD is right (and I do) it doesn’t matter that anybody’s running for Senate. But, I had to double check the name because, frankly, this statement threw me. If it’s understandable, it’s understandable.
So I agree with your first post, understand the diary’s point, but do think it could have been put a little less anti-Shifty.
That being said – Vote Udall!
Obama has missed 37.4%.
Hillary comes in at 26.8% missed.
Of course, McCain takes the cake at 56.4%…yikes…
http://projects.washingtonpost…
http://projects.washingtonpost…
…he’ll go stir crazy in Senate, where he’ll be a member of the minority party in a chamber that requires 60 votes to enact anything, and where he’s an extremist in a chamber where compromise and collegiality are essential.
Psychoanalyzing a shallow news story and a single statistic. I expected more.
The phrase was
If Bill Frist could make a medical diagnosis of Terry Schivo via video, then saying maybe an indicator is very resonable.
He obviously had the skills, abilities, and objectivity to perform an accurate diagnosis based on video.
Don’t try this at home, people.
Even if he had examined Schiavo in person, he still wasn’t qualified to give an opinion on a neurological question regarding brain activity.
was being facetious (and I’m sure you knew that) but your comment made me want to jump in. I come from a medical family, and between my relatives and the ordeal my father-in-law is going through (He has Parkinsons-like symptoms but may not have it because he isn’t responding to the medications) I’ve heard that neurological disorders are notoriously difficult to diagnose with accuracy. So given Frist’s lack of certification and the naked political expediency with which he made his comments, what he did borders on the unethical. And that’s “unethical” as a medical board would define it, not just in the sense that he did the wrong, selfish thing by speaking out the way he did.
He’s an intelligent designer who thinks condoms are bad!
From ABC News:
And like Shifty Schaffer, he won’t give a straight answer to any policy question because he doesn’t understand the issues, he’s just an ideologue who supports Bush.
Is it possible that this man is more stupid than Ronald Reagan was?
Even the Shrub understands that condoms reduce the spread of HIV. (He still has to plug abstinence to appease the wing nuts and the Bible thumpers, but even Bush realizes that condoms work as a backup plan.)
Media putting lipstick on their pig
Instead of following up on the issue, the media changes topics so their golden boy doesn’t make any more gaffes.
At the bottom of your posts actually makes me happy! Instead of acting like he understands economics like most politicians, he is admitting his lack of knowledge.
Politicians- especially those running for President- should have an understanding of economics…but instead they spew sound bytes they think Americans want to hear.
However the interview on sex-ed still sounds like a train-wreck.
but with the 20th century, too.
but “the age of his ideas.”
I admire McCain’s personal courage, but this is pure lunacy.
Even if you’ve “never gotten into these issues before” you must not have the ability reason if you can not answer the question “do condoms stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases?” even without having “gotten into the issues before” you don’t have the mental facilities to be president.