McCain MIA for Roll Call Votes

This morning, the Washington Post reported that since January, John McCain (R-AZ) has missed half--87--of the Senate’s votes. On May 17th, WaPo’s Paul Kane reported that McCain had missed “his fifth straight week without casting a vote…marking the 42nd straight roll call that he has missed.” WaPo also said McCain isn’t the only one to miss votes due to campaigning. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Joe Biden (D-DE) have both missed one-third of the Senate votes this year. During his presidential campaign John Kerry (D-MA) missed 75 votes in the same period. (Hillary Clinton has missed four votes and as of May 3, Barack Obama (D-IL) had missed seven.) Last week when Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) accused McCain of being absent for negotiation meetings on the immigration bill and only “parachuting in” at the last minute, McCain yelled, “Fuck you!” So okay. Senators who are campaigning miss Senate votes. McCain’s immediate response to being challenged by Senator Cornyn is probably more important than his missing Senate votes, many of which are procedural and/or have no bearing on important issues. But it does have bearing on important issues that John McCain, a candidate for president, is a hothead and he cannot control it. Fortunately for us, against his better judgment and because he is not in control of his emotions or his reactions, McCain is showing us the worst side of his character before the election. On the one hand, when feeling threatened, he lies, he rewrites history and he makes inappropriate remarks. On the other hand, he is old, his health is bad, he’s on who-knows-how-many medications, and he looooooves the war in Iraq and wants it to continue forever and ever. With Senator John McCain, we get a two-fer. He’s our current President and Vice President rolled into one.