Kansas’ Sen. Sam Brownback missed 11 of 12 Senate roll call votes last week, maintaining his status as No. 3 among Senate vote missers (better than only South Dakota’s ailing Tim Johnson and fellow campaigner John McCain of Arizona). As of Friday, Brownback had missed 115 of 284 roll call votes this year, or 40 percent.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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38 Comments
How many paychecks has he missed?
Brownback is irrelevant. He panders a segment that the majority of Americans have become bored with. 30 years of moral debate and still Roe vs. Wade stands as it should. 30 years of moral debate while 30 years of domestic neglect that has done nothing but create a wider line between the haves and have-nots.The Republican Party takes the moral rights money while continuing the illusion that only they, the GOP is capable of setting the moral compass for Americans while corruption and immoral behaviour is the order of the day with Party representatives and yet the moral sheep keep on giving blindly as they do and yet Roe vs Wade still stands.
Think about that: Senator Brownback has missed 40% of this year’s roll-call votes.
(Not that CF2K really minds: he’d rather Brownback’s vote not be brought to bear in the service of Senator McConnell’s 42 filibusters and other Republican malfeasance.)
Way to go in fulfilling your oath to serve the people of Kansas, Senator Brownback.
To follow-up on CF2K’s comment, not only has he missed 40% of the votes, but the reason he’s missing them is this windmill-jousting presidential campaign - which is clearly all about his ego and personal - if not absurd - political goals. It has nothing to do with advancing the interests of Kansans. Kansans will someday hopefully have a chance to hold him accountable.
The end of a miserable political career.
Maybe he can go study some science after we vote his a** out.
He went to kollege once. Did he forget to take Biology, or did he just flunk out.
Brownback advertises the type of President he’ll be by his job performance. He plans on being like Bush and just missing work, being out on vacation or spending more time raising money. However Brownback is status quo for conservative Republicans, lazy and no work ethic.
Tim Johnson is recovering from a serious stroke that nearly killed him, so of the “non-convalescent” senators, Brownback moves up to #2 in votes missed (with a bullet, even).
Why is it that Hillary manages to get to all the votes despite the campaign? How does that work? Does she just have more money to fly back and forth?
Johnson should resign. He is keeping his seat for purely partisan political reasons. He can’t do his job.
The Senate works on POSITIVE votes. The Senate requires 60 votes to get much of anything done. “Absent” is, pretty much, a vote AGAINST any bill that comes up.
Although the “campaign” states are a burden for all of the Senators who are running for President, Brownback represents Kansas.
Hillary’s New York is a bit closer to Washington, DC.
Edwards and his hair dresser are closer to DC, as well!
Good point Paul, I just wish they invented something like an airplane so a senator could fly to D.C. and cast votes. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?
Brownback is spending most of his time in Iowa and that’s not that much farther from D.C. than New York is. What is it, another 30 minutes on a plane ride?
Just more pure laziness and incompetence from conservative Republicans.
Candidates for president aren’t spending time in the states they currently represent so distance between DC and those states is not applicable.
I haven’t looked into the story enough to comment with conviction, but on the surface of it, you are right, Econ. Johnson should resign.
Does Hillary do all (even most) of her presidential campainging in N.Y.? Talk about a red herring.
Linda,Yes, but it might make a difference in the ability to fly back and forth between Iowa and DC.
Note, I am not inclined to apologize for Brownback…but I would be interested in serious campaign reform that changes the overwhelming need to raise money and be in the pockets of investors while simultaneously giving advantage to those with more money as opposed to real ideas.
We have so much media at the disposal at so many…Can’t we use Youtube for some more formal campaign-speech/issues platform purposes?
Phantom, they’re all in Iowa a lot right now…some occasional New Hampshires and South Carolinas sprinkled in…and they go to California a lot because there’s a ton of campaign money there.
I can understand how much money you have making a difference, but still see the distance between Iowa and DC being the dame for everyone and what state you are elected from not making any difference.
This may well be the only presidential contest that Brownback can win! The candidate with the highest awol record.
But if you don’t have the money you can’t fly as often, or at least not unless you have a private jet. You don’t expect people to drive to DC and back from Iowa, do you?
Did you see the question on the Democratic debate the other night where they asked how many flew in on private jet? Almost all, so maybe Brownback has a private jet, too, and then this discussion would be moot, because all they would to pay for then is gas and staff.
I bet all the candidates have access to corporate owned/donated jets.
Yes delsol, and we have technology available that makes it totally unnecessary for members of Congress to be in DC. They could be in the state they (supposedly) represent and hold meetings via teleconferencing. Would be more difficult for the lobbyists to get in everyone’s pockets if they were spread out, maybe each would realize the problems, challenges, needs of their constituency if they were physically among them. I see all kinds of cost-saving possibilities of getting them OUT of DC. I don’t expect to see these improvements in my lifetime. I don’t think their purpose (any longer) is to represent WE THE PEOPLE.
Good points, Linda.
we have technology available that makes it totally unnecessary for members of Congress to be in DC
Actually, we have the technology available that we don’t even need members of Congress anymore.
Just give everyone a unique “voting device” with their SS # embedded and let the people vote directly on everything.
Cut out the piggy politicians once and for all.
Wyoming has a system where a Senator gets replaced with one from his own party. Too bad Kansas and S Dakpta don’t have such a system.
It takes a lot more than just voting, which means less than nothing if the voter failed to study the issue being voted on. That knowledge takes on even more meaning when one considers very few Senators read the patriot act prior to voting on it.
That Brownback failed to vote over 40% of the time shows me he hardly takes the issues seriously enough to study them, much less vote on them. But in the long run, if Brownback failed to inform himself on the issues, than the citizens of Kansas win whenever he fails to fulfill his elected duties. What a loser. Maybe in a couple of years, Brownback can write a memoir of just how certain political deviants hated him so much. Kind of like a certain rejected education commission member.
It does bother me when our representative is not present when Congress is in session. But should Congress members who may not have the funds to fly back and forth to primary states not be able to run for president?
After all, looking at the list of Congress members missing votes, presidential candidates are high on the list. It looks like a problem with the way we elect a president, not necessarily a failing by Mr. Brownback.
Senator Brownback has said that if his vote would make a difference in a close issue, he would be there. As one who would agree with most of his votes, that’s good assurance enough for me.
I find it hilarious and quite telling that the most critical are those who are happy that he is not present for those votes. (Such as the Eagle editorial Demo..er memebers) In other words, they are just playing politics.
This is the sixth (6th) editorial thread on the subject of the number of Senator Brownback’s missed Senate votes.
I wonder why the Eagle would do this?
Actually, I don’t.
I’ll guess it’s because he is from the same state the newspaper is from?
Many (most?) of their readers and bloggers are also from that same state?
It would be more interesting to those whom he has been elected to represent than anyone else?
He is a Kansas Senator?
I got it! I got it!
Even tho The Eagle has been told Brownback’s staff reads this blog the first FIVE TIMES his record and his constituents disappointment was printed THEY DID NOTHING!
His attendance record, the number of votes he has made, his representation of the people in his state STILL takes a back seat.
He talks about doing the right thing while drawing a salary to further his own ambitions!
If he’s not voting there is no record.
I didn’t use to think much about a Senator not fulfilling his obligation to his state until the big stink was raised about John Kerry by the Republicons. I’ll go out on a limb here (not) and say that J.K. missed alot less obligations than has our very own republicon senator.
Here’s an excerpt from Bush’s ad against Kerry, (and this was while Kerry was running for the presidency, not the party’s nomination):”President Bush: “I’m George W. Bush, and I approved this message.”
Narrator: “Leadership means choosing priorities. While campaigning, John Kerry has missed over two-thirds of all votes.
Note even then Kerry’s voting record was much better than “Our Man from LaMoncha”, Sam Brownback.Guess it’s one thing if your a Dem., and another if your a Republicon.
“Edwards and his hair dresser are closer to DC, as well!”
Yeah, and the mittster waited to run until he was out of current office. I guess all those trips to far off CALIFORNIA for MAKE UP jobs at a salon there would have cut into his voting?
Big effin’ eye roll here.
just couldnt resist the shot paulie? I’d give up that meme because mitt just made it too easy to shoot it down. What with his three hundred dollar make up artist and all.
Ya know, Tim Johnson could resign if the REPUBLICAN governor of his state would just agree to appoint someone of the same party to hold the seat.
Oh but HELL no. The republican governor wants to play politics and appoint a repuke, not another democrat, so poor old Johnson hangs on to his seat. But please, feel free to blame it all on the ailing Johnson….
And yes, if brownback doesnt have enough money to do BOTH his senate job for kansas and his presidential campaign for god, then he needs to choose.
Oh, wait, I guess his voting record shows he DID choose. And the winner was NOT kansas…
…so when vitter eventually resigns, will it be ok for you repukes if the democratic governor of the state appoints a dem instead of an R to hold that seat?
Hell, VITTER needs to resign waaaaaay before Johnson does. The last time I checked, visiting prostitutes in poopy diapers was much more offensive than having a damn stroke.
I guess that is true, unless you are a republican…
grrll-
I know this is probably unfair but I must assume that Vitter is considered normal by Republican standards.
What’s in George Bush’s backside?
Didn’t the Eagle endorse Brownback for Senate? Might they feel betrayed that their guy is now not doing his job?
Brownback missed 40% of roll call votes? As a taxpayer, how do I go about getting my money back? If he isn’t doing his job then we deserve a refund!