Chutzpah Watch: McCain calls on lawmakers to spend more time on the job in Congress
- From: trudogg <independent@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:57:46 -0400
[...this is about as hypocritiecal as it gets. Calling on Congress to
come back into session because some Republican House members
desperately need to show something to their voters back home. It can't
wait another day, this bogus drilling scheme that won't bring us any
relief for at least 5, maybe 10 years...if at all.]
-----
As a rule, I?m inclined to cut senators (from both parties) some slack
for missing votes during their presidential campaign. It?s tough to
hold down a day job while running for president.
But it?s much harder to be understanding when a candidate fails to
show up for work for months on end, and then lambastes his colleagues
for heading to their home districts/states during the summer recess.
While some Republican members of the House are having a jolly time
in Washington trying to embarrass the Democrats into returning to
Congress to pass an energy bill, Senator John McCain on Monday issued
a personal challenge to his Democratic rival to ?come back into town
and come back to work.?
Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, urged Congress to
abandon its five-week summer recess and return to the Capitol to
address the nation?s energy needs.
?Congress should come back into session,? Mr. McCain said after
touring the National Label Company, in Lafayette Hill, a suburb of
Philadelphia, according to a pool report. ?I am willing to come back
off the campaign trail.?
Earlier in the day, McCain told a biker rally, ?Tell em? to come back
and get to work. When I?m president of the United States, I?m not
going to let them go on vacation.?
This strikes me as amusing for two reasons: the hypocrisy and the
misplaced priorities.
On the latter point, McCain hasn?t been ?willing? to leave the
campaign trail for anything, but all of a sudden, he?s ready to head
back to his day job to tackle a coastal drilling bill that wouldn?t do
any good anyway.
Brad Johnson noted a handful of the bills McCain could have come back
to the Hill to vote on, but decided he couldn?t be bothered.
? 4/26/07: Iraq War funding (passed 51-46)
? 6/7/07: Immigration reform (filibustered 34-61)
? 6/11/07: Condemning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
(filibustered 53-38)
? 7/26/07: Homeland Security (passed 85-8)
? 8/3/07: Wiretapping (FISA) authorization (passed 60-28)
? 9/27/07: Children?s health insurance (passed 69-30; vetoed)
? 2/6/08: Stimulus package with support for renewable energy
(filibustered by one vote)
? 4/23/08: Fair Pay Act (filibustered 56-42)
? 5/22/08: The 21st-Century GI Bill (passed 75-22)
? 6/6/08: Global warming legislation (filibustered 48-36)
McCain wouldn?t leave the campaign trail for any of these votes, but
he is willing to head back for a pointless debate on a pointless
drilling initiative. It helps highlight just how serious McCain is
about governing ? or in this case, not.
The hypocrisy is just as unnerving.
Mr. McCain, who has served in Congress for 26 years, has missed
numerous votes on crucial legislation, particularly during this
prolonged campaign. But he said he was ready to return to session and
criticized Congress for ?doing nothing.?
?I call on Senator Obama to call on Congress to come back into
town and come back to work,? he said. ?Come off their recess. Come off
their vacation and address this energy crisis for America and don?t
leave until you do.?
This crisis has been unfolding for quite a while. Where has McCain
been? He hasn?t cast a vote in the Senate in four months. He has the
worst attendance record in the chamber, and that includes Sen. Tim
Johnson (D-S.D.), who took months off to recover from a brain
hemorrhage. And he has the gall to whine about lawmakers heading home
for a scheduled recess?
If McCain wants to blow off his Senate duties to run for president, I
understand. But as hilzoy put it, ?[I]t would behoove him not to start
lecturing his fellow Senators on the need to ?start working for the
American people, and not for ourselves? until he manages to put his
own personal ambition aside and do his job.?
Steve Benen
.
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