In the last year, John Kerry has missed about 90% of all Senate roll-call votes.
In the real world, this is the equivalent of showing up for work once every two weeks.
In the real world, most people get paid once every two weeks.
Is it wrong of me to speculate that John Kerry only shows up for work to pick up his check for $5683.31 every two weeks?
J.
(Check amount obtained by dividing Kerry’s stated Senate income from Kerry’s 2003 tax return and dividing by 26)
Damn. Maybe I should run for Senator. I can show up to pick up checks, I know I’m at least qualified for that.
Dude – don’t you realize that Teresa has direct deposit? He only shows up for casual Fridays.
Viking Pundit keeps track of the missed votes/work by our wonderful senator.
OMG! Does this mean that Kerry has been AWOL during the war on terror?
Hah! Good line Chuck.
And so every day Bush is not sitting in the White House, he is not doing his job?
Let’s stick with actual issues!
Isn’t the Senate normally in session from Tuesday to Thursday?
This means he’d be in less frequently than a regular pay cycle… and he’s unlikely to primp and pontificate before the empty chambers on CSPAN-2 when he’s got skiing, biking, and windsurfing to catch up on.
I have no great respect for JK…but what is the senatorial average for missed roll calls?
R.G. wrote, “And so every day Bush is not sitting in the White House, he is not doing his job?
Let’s stick with actual issues!”
John Kerry doesn’t even show up to vote on the issues before the Senate. Pay attention to the issue.
That’s fine if someone wants to run for President who also happens to be in Congress. However, I think it’s only fair to his constituents if he resigns his position first. They are the real losers in all this, as they aren’t being represented.
Kerry’s constituents haven’t been getting the representation they pay for since Kerry got elected the first time in ’84. He’s just been even more AWOL than usual since starting his presidential campaign.
I imagine he has Direct Deposit; if not the Federal version?
The bastard doesn’t have to “show up;” at all…
And Kerry while serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee missed 76% of their meeting even after 9-11.
Is there a citation where those numbers can be verified?
As you well know, 67.4% of all statistics are fabricated.
As I recall, The Senate rules state that it’s pro-rated to account for time missed.
OK, some googling shows that I am wrong; it’s a Federal law, not a Senate rule.
2 USC
CJ – I don’t think you could get congress to touch that one with the proverbial 10 foot pole. If they applied it to one member, they would have to apply it to all members.
And no one would sit still for that.
Skeptic;
You are quite right. Also, I’ve done some more searching and found that my observation was far from original; Newsmax has a detailed article on it, from July!
http://tinyurl.com/54kg7
Basically, the Secretary of the Senate has siad that her predecesors did not follow the law, so neither will she.
But, that does not exonerate Kerry. He’s a Senator, and also a lawyer, so he cannot claim ignorance as a defence.
Also, what we have here is a flagrant violation of Federal law, not Senate rules. Therefor, action by congress is not required. Any Federal prosecutor could do it.
If I were the Republican strategists, I’d seriously consider seeing to it that a Grand Jury was convenened to look into this, around Oct. 15th.
CJ – The problem is what constitutes “absent from the Senate”? Most of time senators are absent from the floor. They may be in committee meetings, meeting with constituents, or in their offices. Everybody knows that. The big question is, how many of the votes that he missed, were decided by one vote? Was he make or break on any of the votes he missed?
If the RNC goes after him for being away from the office, the DNC will go after the prez for all the time he’s spent in Texas.
Skeptic;
I respectfully disagree regarding the law; Being in Senate meetings, etc, would not IMHO constitute being absent from the Senate as specified in 2 USC