I subscribe to a mailing list called 'Mega Vote' that is run by, of all people, the American Public Health Association. They send out one mail per week detailing my representative's votes in Congress. It's an excellent way to find out how your Senators & Congressperson vote and I enthusiastically recommend it to everyone.
As I was looking thru it today, I noticed that my useless Senator, the pretend 'independent' Republican, Gordon Smith (R-OR) voted Yes on a Cloture Motion regarding the Medicare Improvements for Patients & Providers Act of 2008, which would have cancelled a scheduled cut in Medicare physician reimbursements. As we've come to expect from the Obstructionist Republicans, the Vote to overcome the Republican filibuster was rejected 58-40 with 2 not voting.
And wouldn't you know it, John McCain was one of two Senators who failed to vote. The other was Ted Kennedy, who, unless I'm mistaken, is still recovering from his surgery.
This is part of a recurring problem with John McCain, the most absentee member of the US Senate. He's constantly absent from work. In fact, he has missed 61.8% of the votes in the 110th Congress - 10+% more than Tim Johnson (D-SD) who had a brain hemmorage & almost 20% more than Obama.
Why is McCain absent so much? We all know he's older than the area code, but I don't think he's absent because he's off napping somewhere. I think it's because he doesn't want to be on record for anything that he might be held accountable for later. Some, like me, might call that cowardly. It's certainly not what we should expect from 'Mr. Straight Talk' and I wish some courageous member of big media would call him on it.
Just for fun, I'll list up some votes from the 110th Session that McSame has missed:
Durbin Amendment No. 1034; to reduce financial conflict of interest in FDA Advisory Panels (47-47, 6 not voting)
Improving America's Security Act of 2007. This was to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 commission (85-8, 8 not voting)
From the League of Conservation Voters is this gem:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) scored 0 percent in 2007 (24 percent lifetime) due to missing all 15 votes scored, including the key vote on repealing tax giveaways to big oil – a measure that failed by only one vote.
Have some favorite missed McCain votes of your own? Please feel free to add them in the comments. If you supply a link, I'll try to update the diary.