Edwards' Senate attendance record

[ProfessorPlum]

One thing that Edwards did not refute last night was that he had a very low attendance record in the senate.

Either he doesn't, and didn't think it was a point worth arguing over. Or he does (have a low attendance record) and didn't have any excuse for that.

Anyone have a good reference for this? After the campaign started, I don't really care - after all, Bush has been almost completely absent from Wash. DC for the last year as he galavants around.

But does Edwards have a poor attendance record (prior to his campaign starting), and if so, why?

[shoelace414]

1. he's 1 of 100.

Bush is 1 of 1, and spent over 40% of his time out of Warshington.

[ewagner]

2. Excellent point

This is a crack in the door that has to be closed one way or the other.

[ProfessorPlum]

3. Well, I'm not sure that it matters all that much

The voters may or may not care, and there may be some good reason for it. I was just wondering.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Another hollow measurement by the Republicans.

Perfect attendence and # bills submitted do not correlate to leadership/effectiveness in measuring Edwards' or Kerry's capabilities to lead the country.

Don't play along with their game.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. I'm not playing any game

I'm wondering if Edwards does have a bad attendance record - it may be his attendance is typical, or better or worse than average. But if he were my representative, I'd want to know why. And I would want to know why, as Edwards will be my rep. in the new administration.

[Old and In the Way]

23. Sure Prof....

I assume you, as a teacher, have had students who had perfect attendence, sat at the front, contributed....and failed miserably. And you also had outstanding students who may have been delinquent in all 3 measurements, yet be worthy of your highest grades.

That's my point....it's an easy soundbite to smear Edwards with a distorted fact, calculated to elicit a long and complicated refution that's impossible with 2 minute responses.

[Ripley]

5. I thought for sure I heard the Evil One say

that about Kerry's attendance record, not Edward's. Maybe I heard it wrong.

Anyway...why are we dissecting either one's attendance? What went direly wrong in America if they missed some votes? Look at Smirk....he is on vacation half the time and VERY DIRE consequences happened...like, um, 9/11.

[ProfessorPlum]

8. I'm just wondering whether Cheney's attack had any merit at all

or whether it was just a result of his fevered, lying brain.

Maybe Edwards does have a bad record of attendance. If so, I'd like to know why.

This is just between us DUers - once we know what the real facts are, we can think about how we might present it to the outside world, but first we have to know the facts.

Nobody here seems to know.

[LSK]

7. heres the spin to that folks

Do you want Edwards to become a Washington politician? How can he know the issues of the country when hes stuck on the floor of the Senate everyday?

I would rather have my officials spend time getting my input and telling me whats going on instead of locked away in Washington all the time.

[ProfessorPlum]

10. Yeah, yeah, the spin is easy

But is Cheney's attack even true? If it isn't, the spin is even easier: "Cheney is lying out of his ass again".

Which spin must we use? We won't know until someone can tell us what the actual record is, and how it compares with others.

[Mountainman]

9. I think that there were a few times when the Repubs scheduled a vote

just to make Kerry/Edwards look bad. When they showed up the repubs would cancel the vote, when they were not there the repubs scheduled a vote.

[ProfessorPlum]

12. I'm not talking about after the campaigns started

Edwards and Kerry and Kucinich, etc., were obviously away from the congress more often because of the campaign. I give them a complete pass on that.

What about before he started campaigning?

[MADem]

11. Pundits call that one a NON STARTER

You cannot run for national office and sit on your ass in the Senate.

He always showed up when his vote mattered.

Cheney only introduced two bills as a rep, and one was for the personal relief of a crony.

Cheney voted AGAINST Head Start, Meals on Wheels, freeing Nelson Mandela, and establishment of MLK Day.

Cheney used that as a quick jab because he was on the ropes. It does not resonate with voters, and the danger is that if they bring up HIS shitty record (with all his public service) the poopoo gets slung back on him.

Blip, then sink....

[ProfessorPlum]

14. Does nobody even know what the facts are?

Or where to find them?

I don't care how to "spin" this - that's not my job. I just want to know what the actual deal is.

[venus]

17. I agree

Nothing wrong with knowing the facts. During the primaries I did hear that Edwards was absent a lot. That bothered me then. Doesn't matter much now and I'm sure Edwards was probably prepared for this attack because it's not the first time it's come up.

[marlakay]

13. Leahy said last night Cheney comes every tues but only

talks to repubs. Made it clear that they don't want to reach out to our side at all. Where is our united leadership?

[July]

15. See my post about Cheney's appearances.

There is also discussion at www.dailykos.com about Edwards's record. He has made 1551 out of 1626 roll call votes, for a total of 95.4%, according to the poster there. There's a breakdown of this year vs. past years, too, with more missed votes this year (69 out of 321) than in the previous years (7 out of 1307, they report). Doing the math, it looks like the total no. of votes is actually 1627. But I'm reporting this secondhand, someone may want to check it out.

[ProfessorPlum]

16. Thank you for some numbers, finally

They seem enormously high. Maybe Cheney was just blatantly lying?

But I would expect Edwards to be absent more often than that during campaign season.

[ohioan]

18. Edwards had a near-perfect attendance record in his first four years

in the Senate. In the past year and a half, after he began running for president, he had no choice but to miss votes, but he never missed a crucial vote.

[ProfessorPlum]

19. Thank you - that is excellent news

And means that Cheney was just lying, as he seems to do instinctively. Do you have a link for that data? (especially the first four years?) I've been Googling, but no luck so far.

[ohioan]

22. Try this

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/a_three_sections_with_teasers/votes.htm

It's not compiled, so you have to go through each year and count, but the raw data is there.

[spooky3]

24. did you see Ohioan's summary? Linked below.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x988659

[MsTryska]

20. So basically just another case of cherry-picking.

assmonkeys.

[democrat_patriot]

21. Edwards has been campaigning for president, more important

for North Carolina.

[JohnKleeb]

25. Got the debunk ready

http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=CNC68243
Guys help me with this other stuff ok.