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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (25237)	7/20/2003 9:14:30 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

You can retract your BS about Kerry's voting attendance. He has an above-average record: WASHINGTON -- According to a study by Roll Call Report Syndicate, which reports votes on Capitol Hill, most lawmakers showed up to vote most of the time during an 11-month session that produced 633 roll calls in the House and 298 in the Senate. Average attendance in the House was 96.3 percent; it was 97.3 percent in the Massachusetts House delegation. New Bedford's congressman, Rep. Barney Frank, had a 95.7 percent score. Freshman Rep. Jim McGovern, earned a 99.2 percent score. He represents Westport, Dartmouth and part of Fall River. Average attendance was 98.6 percent in the Senate, with Massachusetts Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry averaging 98.3 between them. For some members, getting to the floor for votes assumes a near-religious devotion. For example, in the weeks before Rep. Bill Emerson, R.-Mo., died of lung cancer, he would show up on the House floor to vote in a wheelchair equipped with oxygen. And the late Rep. William H. Natcher, D-Ky., who was in Congress for decades, once prided himself on participating in every floor vote since he took office. Usually, however, good turnout is motivated not just by civic duty but also by survival. Constituents may tune out much of what occurs in Congress; but they quickly get the point when they see their representative or senator skewered in a TV attack ad for missing too many votes. Since bottoming out at 79 percent in 1970, members' overall voting participation has improved for just that reason. Certainly, Gephardt aide Laura Nichols was eager to put Gephardt's attendance record in a positive context. "In looking back over a 20-year career he has always averaged around a 90 percent voting record," said Gephardt aide Laura Nichols. "Democrats don't set the voting schedule in the House. There are occasions when his district and his family schedule collide with voting schedules." Gephardt was absent for votes that adopted new ethics rules sponsored mainly by Republicans in response to a lengthy, Democratic-inspired ethics investigation of Gingrich. The rules require speedier resolution of complaints and prevent non-members from directly filing charges based on outside sources such as newspaper reports. He missed a vote on the Democratic priority of using statistical sampling to count inner-city residents in the 2000 census, a roll call that passed a bill to move children more quickly from foster care to adoption, and the year's final vote on outlawing so-called "partial-birth" abortions.