Posted on 12/25/2005 2:08:30 PM PST by new yorker 77
In the course of winning the governor's office this fall, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine claimed a related prize: the worst attendance record in Congress.
MISSING
Missed more than a third of the U.S. Senate's floor votes in 2005.
Missed 135 of 366 roll call votes, or about 37 percent, in the 2005 session that ended early Friday morning.
Showed up for only four of 125 votes during the height of the campaign season.
The Democratic governor-elect bade his official farewell to the Senate in a speech last week as he prepared to cut his term a year short and begin serving his new elected office in Trenton. But records show that he had all but left the chamber months ago.
Corzine missed more than a third of the U.S. Senate's floor votes this year, showing up for only four of 125 votes during the height of the campaign season, from the middle of September through November. Over the entire year, Corzine missed 135 of 366 roll call votes, or about 37 percent, in the Senate session that ended early Friday morning.
That was enough to make Corzine easily the top absentee senator this year. Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii was a distant second, having missed 50 votes for an absence rate of about 14 percent, according to a WashingtonPost.com congressional voting database. He was followed by Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, who skipped 10 percent of the Senate floor votes.
No one in the lower house could touch Corzine's truancy rate either, according to the database. The House's most absent member, Iowa Democrat Leonard Boswell, missed 21.5 percent of the votes in that chamber this year.
Shortly after Gov. James E. McGreevey resigned in scandal last year, Corzine confirmed long-standing rumors of his gubernatorial ambitions and jumped into the race for the office. Although he still had two years left in his Senate term, the former Goldman Sachs chairman said he believed he could accomplish more in the powerful executive office than as a freshman senator in the Democratic minority.
Earlier this month, Corzine announced that he would appoint Robert Menendez, a veteran Hudson County congressman, to serve the last year of his six-year Senate term.
Corzine spokesman David Wald said the senator "worked very hard to balance his Senate responsibilities with his campaign" and returned for important votes, including support for hurricane relief, defense spending and increasing the minimum wage. Corzine also voted against John Roberts' nomination to be chief justice of the United States.
"As of Oct. 7, his lifetime attendance was 96.7 percent," Wald said, noting that's a bit lower than Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg but better than the record complied by New Jersey's previous senators for the past half-century, Robert Torricelli, Bill Bradley, Nicholas Brady, Harrison Williams and Clifford Case.
None of which impressed Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson.
"You'd think someone who spent $65 million to buy a Senate seat would be more interested in occupying it," Wilson said. "It's very hard to have your voice heard when you only show up two-thirds of the time."
Corzine is by no means the first senator to put ambitions above attendance. He looks positively dutiful compared with Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who missed nearly three-quarters of the votes in the Senate during 2003 and 2004, when he was running for president. His running mate, Sen. John Edwards, was absent for nearly half of them.
While Corzine's attendance record this year clearly sets him apart, its importance can be debated to an extent. Many congressional votes are procedural, and most pass by more than one-vote margins. And attendance rates include only so-called roll call votes in which each senator's vote is recorded, not the "voice votes" in which only the final result is available.
"Lots of decisions in the Senate are made by unanimous consent," said Randall W. Strahan, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta. Of Corzine's absenteeism, Strahan said.
"It tells you something about his priorities in terms of how he spent his time, and if he were running for Senate again it would be an issue. ... It's certainly something that catches your eye, but there are other ways a state's interests get represented that are probably more important than roll-call votes."
Strahan added that a senator's staff and leadership can anticipate important votes and make sure a senator takes part in them. During the stretch when most of Corzine's absences occurred, there were five measures decided by a margin of one vote and no ties, according to the WashingtonPost.com database. Senate ties are broken by the vice president, so even 50-49 votes favoring the administration would have gone the same way had Corzine joined the losing Democrats.
Corzine did go to Washington on Thursday and vote to continue a filibuster against a defense bill that included a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. He also voted against a bill including a slate of budget cuts that was approved only after Vice President Dick Cheney broke a 50-50 tie.
Among the more high-profile votes that Corzine missed were a proposal to force President Bush to project dates for withdrawal from Iraq, which the Senate rejected a week after Corzine was elected governor; a $60 billion tax cut package passed by the Senate two days later; a bill cutting several federal programs and allowing for oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, passed five days before the gubernatorial election; and an Oct. 5 vote to ban cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners in American military custody.
All of those measures were decided by margins wide enough that Corzine's presence would not have changed the result.
Washington correspondent Herb Jackson contributed to this article. E-mail: gohlke@northjersey.com
Cor-Slime is too busy wheelin', dealin', and stealin'.
Cor-Slime is too busy wheelin', dealin', and stealin'.
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Like Kerry, another worthy government official, with great attendance record, both libs, both slimebags, both giving the bird to the stupid voters that put them in the jobs.
When will the STUCK ON STUPID sector of our voting society wise up??
It's "Jon".
And it doesn't matter. New Jersey is what it is - - a hopeless, thoroughly corrupt toilet.
Well then I guess his presence doesn't matter!!! I would love to have a job that I only had to show up 1 of every 3 days.....it would be nice!!
New Jersey and Massachusetts are essentially one party systems, totally corrupt, undemocratic toilets. Hence four of the absolute worst senators in Congress, outside of the two psychopaths from NY (Hillary and Schumer) and the 60 IQ drama queen from California (Boxer).
A favorable record is of no import when politics is just a hobby
Kerry did it and he was a serious candidate for president, so Corzine is probably not seeing how this hurts him.
Doesn't say much for New Jersey people!
Well....guess we already knew that......
Same here in Connecticut....for the most part.
Hey don't forget our fine crew here in Connecticut.....
the blowhard, Dodd.
and the whiner, Lieberman.
Lieberman always talks the high road, but when it come to a vote, he slides back into the gutter......except Iraq.
New Jersey and Massachusetts are essentially one party systems, totally corrupt, undemocratic toilets.
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Yep, just the way the slimey libs like it. Ala Clintonian Arkansas...same deal. Your description of Boxer is too nice...and you should have included Perlosi and Feinstein in there too --- :-)
Ain't that the truth. Two important electoral and procedural reforms that would improve (a bit) the mess that is Congress:
1.) Mandatory attendance. Every day congress in session its members should be present in the chamber and participating. It is shocking to me that an elected official would ever miss a vote: That is dereliction of duty and disenfranchisement of their constituents. If you can't show up 95%+ it should be bye-bye time.
2.) No running for office while holding another. If you are elected you need to serve every day of your term. Senator Moneybags didn't like the Senate seat his millions bought? Too bad: Don't run for reelection then you bum.
The Rules of the Senate require them to refund their pay for every missed day. There was a stink about this in 2004, and the ethics committee basically said "pack sand".
COULDN'T care less. Sheesh.
"When will the STUCK ON STUPID sector of our voting society wise up?? "
I agree, but how do we reach the brain dead. Half of them probably don't know who the VP is. And half of that half never heard of President Bush. I have no respect for the stupid, they just leach on the hard work of those who are informed and working hard at it.
You nailed Loserman precisely. Dodd is despicable. The high point of Dodd's miserable life was acting as a slice of bread in a waitress sandwich with that murdering cockroach from Massachusetts.
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