Kucinich says he will force House vote on Cheney impeachment

What I'm saying is that his attendance is not that despicable in comparison to everyone else who has to juggle a congressional commitment while also running a campaign, and if anything, his attendance is better than most.

Do I think that it's ridiculous that politician is the only career where you can look for a new job instead of going to the one you already have? Yes.
Is Ron Paul the only candidate doing it? Not this year, not ever.

 

It's pretty sad when you have to justify his short comings as a Senator by comparing him to other's with similar short comings.

 

1. He's a Congressman.
2. I wish the system wasn't designed as such that you must choose between attendance and running for public office, but it is.
3. I'm not saying that having better attendance wouldn't be a good thing, but I must also empathize that the only other way to run for public office without interrupting his current public office would be to resign. I think that is a bit unnecessary, and counter-productive, because then his Congressional constituents will miss all the good he gets done for their district when he DOES make it to votes.

The bottom line is that this is an issue with every single candidate who runs for public office who is already in Congress, or currently a governor. While I don't like it, I don't pretend to have a more viable solution to the mess. Call it shortcomings if you wish, but the bottom line is that campaigning takes away from whatever current position a candidate may hold. Even if a candidate isn't in Congress, they probably hold a job in the private sector, so guess what? The stockholders of that private business and the employees of that business are also losing leadership while their candidate runs for office.

The only persons who would remain unaffected by this are candidates with no current job, and honestly, I'll take someone who tries to juggle two jobs over a career politician. I find it sad you would rather cast your vote for a career politician over a statesmen who serves in public office while being a private citizen.

 

Really? BTW, I got the memo.. We are putting cover sheets on all the TPS reports now.

Ah, the system is designed such that you simply quit your current job if you are going to be getting a different one... That or you look for your new job on your own time. Many have chosen to quit while they run.. Those that do not, do so because they can. I mean look at Kerry.. He did not even quit his job whilst running for President.. Why? He wanted something to fall back on when he lost.

If RP really does not believe in a free ride, or government handouts, why then does he collect a paycheck for a job he only does 70% of the time?

Ah, like, yeah... You resign... Duh...

Yeah, they miss out on all the good he does 70% of the time...

No, it is only an issue for some... If you really believe in something this much, should you not concentrate 100% of your time at it? I mean, 70% is not a horrible voting record in congress, there are worse as you have pointed out, but 30% of your time put into being President? When you look at it that way, I'd rather keep the 70%...

So which one is the career politician then? The one who has two jobs or none? I'm not sure your analogy makes sense...

 

I bring up the fact he's a Congressmen because you called him a Senator, there is a clear distinction between the two.

If you honestly believe that since Ron Paul has a 78% attendance record, he's campaigning to 22% of his ability, that's fine. You're just twisting math that doesn't sum up like that to suit your interests, and I'm not going to bother debating that ridiculous claim.

Overall, if you want to factor in attendance record, that's fine, it's your vote. My main purpose in responding to your original post was to point out that he's far from the only candidate who has missed votes as a result of his campaign, and that he's far from the worst (cough McCain showing up for half his votes cough). The way your post was phrased seemed to intentionally single him out as being responsible for this, when the reality of it is that every single active member of Congress running in the election has the same issue with sub-par attendance. Perhaps your goal was not to single Paul out for this, but in either case, I felt the need to make sure you and others were aware that it's an incredibly common occurrence.

To each their own, and if that is a huge issue for you, so be it. For me personally, I see it as an unfortunate consequence of the system, and the fact that he ranks near the top of the candidates who are running in attendance is good enough for me.


P.S.What I find most troubling is Senators and Congressmen with similar attendance records, who don't have medical problems or active political campaigns to justify their absences. To me, that is much worse and unacceptable.