Remember this debate comment by Dick Cheney?
You've missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.
Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.
Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.
The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.
His target, of course, was John Edwards. How then, might he feel about
John McCain, who hasn't voted since April 8th?
Depending on how it goes, the Medicare override vote could be the perfect petard on which to hang the rusted warrior.
Imagine that the override fails by one vote -- the vote of Senator McCain. Care to guess how the American Medical Association will react? Or, perhaps, AARP? Well, guess no more:
We stand at the brink of a Medicare meltdown. ... For doctors, this is not a partisan issue -- it's a patient access issue," AMA President Nancy Nielsen said in a statement after last week's Senate vote.
The AMA ran radio and TV ads over the July Fourth congressional recess targeting 10 Republican senators, seven of whom are up for re-election.
The AARP, the nation's largest organization of retired persons, and other groups also are weighing in against the cuts.
Now, McCain has made it clear where he stands:
In an explanation posted on his Web site, McCain said that doctors are the "heart of our health care system" and supported a halt to a proposed 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments.
However, the Arizona senator opposes cuts to Medicare Advantage, saying it "places 2.3 million seniors at risk of losing the health plan coverage of their choice."
His vote, or lack thereof, won't really matter until the attempt at override occurs. How an admitted underdog candidate intends to win while failing to do his current job, as well as angering both the AMA and AARP -- well, I think he makes it pretty hard on himself. Not to mention how angry seniors and their children will be when doctors start turning away patients.
And, if somehow the override succeeds without McCain's presence, he's hardly off the hook. Republicans who think he's right will be none too happy that he wasn't there for the cause. Some of those Republicans are fellow Senators.
His best bet is to vote his conscience and have the override succeed anyway. Somehow, I don't think he intends to show his face at the Capitol for a vote anytime soon. Let's hope that Obama gets the chance to make this point in the debates: Not only does Senator McCain apparently think Medicare is a disgrace, just like Social Security, he can't even be bothered to vote when his vote is needed.