Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback missed a comparatively few two of 16 Senate votes last week, slightly lowering his missed vote total for the year to 38.5 percent. He told the Washington Times that he tries to be in Washington, D.C., during the middle of each workweek or for close votes but has found it “very difficult to balance” his Senate job with his presidential bid — no surprise to Kansans. “It’s both tough and frustrating because if you’re going to run for president, you’ve got to be out talking to people about the topics,” he said. “And being in the House or Senate, you’ve got to be there voting on the topics.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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57 Comments
WHY do you insist on keeping bringing this up? We don’t WANT him voting.
Say you are a Wichita school teacher but obtained a great job working at a dude ranch during the current school year … wouldn’t it be obvious you must CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER. You can’t take money for teaching school while working the school year in the Colorado Rockies … or Iowa as the case might be.
What’s so hard to understand about that?
So, Senator Sam Brownback, do the right thing and resign your U.S. Senate seat first thing Monday morning and let some astute Kansan take over the job.
Its obvious you and several other candidates are letting the U.S. government finance your presidential race. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Actually that is about what teachers do. They are paid very well for 9 months work. They are very protected and hardly ever lose their jobs.
“In countries that allow gay marriage, the rates of heterosexual marriage “have plummeted to where you have counties now in northern Europe where 80 percent of the first-born children are born out of wedlock.”Sam Brownback on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 in a debate in Durham, N.H
Marriage rates declined before same-sex unions legalized
In a Republican debate on Sept. 5, 2007, Brownback cited an argument that social-values conservatives have been making for years about gay marriage: that it causes declining marriage rates and more births to unmarried couples.
But the trends of declining marriage rates and births out of wedlock started before gay unions were legalized.
M.V. Lee Badgett, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the research director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA, wrote a detailed study that examined rates for marriage and birth rates in Scandinavian countries.
“Marriage rates, divorce rates, and nonmarital birth rates have been changing in Scandinavia, Europe, and the United States for the past thirty years,” Badgett writes. “But those changes have occurred in all countries, regardless of whether or not they adopted same-sex partnership laws, and these trends were underway well before the passage of laws that gave same-sex couples rights.”
In, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, same-sex partnerships were legalized in 1989, 1993 and 1994, respectively. Generally speaking, gay partners in these countries have the legal and financial protections of marriage, but they are not allowed to marry in church or adopt children.
The county-level statistics Brownback cites about first-born births are correct, Badgett said, but that trend also started years before the legalization of same-sex unions.
Conservative author Stanley Kurtz is a prominent advocate of the argument that gay marriage hurts heterosexual marriage. Kurtz responded to Badgett’s study by arguing that marriage rates in Scandinavia and other European countries are still declining, and that the legalization of same-sex partnerships “reinforces and intensifies parental cohabitation.”
But even Kurtz acknowledges that the decline began before the legalization of same-sex unions.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/personalities/sam-brownback/
Teachers work MORE than 9 months out of the year. Just follow in the footsteps of a teacher during his/her “summer” vacation and see what they do. Most of them are either in school taking REQUIRED classes in order to keep their jobs or are involved in school related activities of some sort. Do the Math on what teachers are paid compared to the number of hours they work each week, month, or year and see what they really make per hour and compare that to what most other people working the same number of hours do. Have you people ever walked in the same shoes/footsteps of a teacher??? Maybe you should before you go bashing them or anyone else.
“WHY do you insist on keeping bringing this up? We don’t WANT him voting.”
What she said.
Sam….go run for president….or just run. Stay out of Kansas…take your gay-bashing hatred some where else. We don’t like it anymore, we don’t want it anymore….Sam, we don’t like you anymore. Run, run far away.
Praise Allah, Brownback is out of Washington and missing votes.
Better to have NO representation than his “representation,” an untiring voice for the downtrodden rich and disenfranchised multinational corporation.
Ronnie–
Most of the teachers I know would love to work 12 months out of the year.
It will never happen because then the taxpayers would have to pay them 25 percent more for the extra three months.
Does anyone know the next time the federal government dolls out matching funds to presidential candidates?
Generally, I approve of government-funded elections. But the matching-funds system now is nothing short of welfare for egoists. Sam’s gonna spend all the money (such as it is) he’s raised and stick around long enough for matching funds to replenish his coffers.
(Except he’s given his solemn promise that he’s not going to seek reelection in 2010. Right.)
Well DUH Sam, you cant do both jobs at the same time?
Then… why didnt you resign your senate seat BEFORE running for prez?
Double dip much? I guess I’ll ask again.
If brownback is god’s senator, and roberts is clearly bush’s senator…
…who represents Kansas?
Right now, it appears no one does. And it shows. Anyone seen sammy comment on the proposed farm bill?
(crickets chirping)
I guess all those snowflake babies need sammy more than kansas does.
And we see which job is most important to sammy, and it aint bein’ senator from ks.
LTPLTL, I think next January is when this crook who professes to be such a god-fearing, wonderful man can rob America. So far he is taking Kansans for all he can get with the greater heist on the horizon.
Aside from the fact that he is a crook and a hypocrite he can’t tell a podium from a pulpit.
Heh Linda! And it’s not like Mr. “I married into money” Brownback needs the funds…
Good morning grrl! It’s always good to see you. Doesn’t need the money but thinks god’s message could use it since he isn’t willing to spend his own (married into) money to spread the hate and bigotry of his message.
It seems that his has joined a forum where bashing an individual who openly expresses and opinion for or against a particular lifestyle is a targe for those gutless wonders who can make posts namelessly.
I bet you hide in the bushes and whack people over the head as they walk by in the dark as well!!
Hello Hey! My name is Linda and since you are so opposed to posting anonymously I thought I’d mention you are the first person I’ve ever known who has your first name – very unique.
BTW, welcome to America where it is our right (at least so far) to disagree with public figures who are using our money and the time they promised to us to further their ambitions.
Uh, I would LOVE to have the opportunity to tell sam the sham these things to his face! Funny thing that he doesnt return my calls… heheheheheh!
And dont you just love when anonymous posters bitch about anonymous posting… heheheheh.
Just like the biggest troll and nic switcher on the blog is whining when other people switch nics.
only in the land of wingnuttia…
My ex- knew Mary Stauffer in high school. “A sweet, sweet, girl, but dull as a box of worms.” Everyone who knew her and Sam (the Sham) thought he was a slimeball only interested in her fortune. I’ve talked with a guy from Parker who said, “He’s a schemer. He talked about running for President when he was 15 years old, and I said, ‘That’s for rich people!’ and he said, ‘So I’ll marry a rich girl!’”
Maybe today’s Sam is different. Maybe he really did get religion as really believes in Snowflake Babies and this whole presidential race is some kind of Frankensteinian mash-up of Sam’s orginal ambition with his religious conversion. I dunno.
But there’s something positively Nixonian in Sam’s being. He got to Congress by implying he was pro-choice, but he attacks Mitt Romney for not embracing the anti-abortion cause soon enough. Brownback won his congressional seat on a “3-Rs” campaign: “Reduce, Repeal, and … (I don’t remember; Retch?”) campaign. He’s no longer for reducing the scope of government, the only repeal he advocates is a Supreme Court decision (which isn’t possible either as a Seanator or President), but he still makes us retch. When a Mormon accuses you of being “holier than thou,” you’ve gone over the edge.
Brownback was in North Carolina when he made this speech about decling marriage rates. Enough said. North Carolina and the rest of the lost forever in the 1860’s South, are a slow bunch.
This kind of rhetoric is common in those parts of the country. Why else do you think Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson set up their con shops in the South?
Same sex marriages is not the reason for out of wedlock babies. For that answer, let’s look at our how government rewards single mothers that have babies without the benefit of marriage. And, if the woman does not name the father – bingo! Instant handouts everywhere until that kid reaches legal age.
And do you think these women stop at having just one child? Oh no, they keep going on and on. Sometimes with the same man and sometimes with numerous men – and all at the taxpayers’ expense.
And here is one for you all to think about. I know of a lesbian couple, one of them got pregnant by an ex-boyfriend. Because they are not married, the taxpayers ended up paying for the triplets she had!
This lesbian couple are living together, the ‘mother’ does not work and we pay for the triplets’ healthcare, food, milk, etc. And this is what Brownback wants us to continue to do?
One of Sam (the Sham) Brownback’s lies is the part of his stump speech that declares Scandanavian countries which have recognized same-gender marriage have experienced an increase in out-of-wedlock births.
True, as far as it goes.
Except that trend started long before some (not all) Scandanavian countries recognized same-gender unions.
The connection doesn’t have any cause-effect significance.
Hell, I could tell you the number of people who’ve died of gunshot wounds has increased since they invented the self-contained cartridge. I suspect few people would accept that as an argument against non-muzzle-loaded pistols.
Someone needs to remind god’s senator that correlation does not equal causation. Hell, I learned that in HIGH SCHOOL!
“North Carolina and the rest of the lost forever in the 1860’s South, are a slow bunch”
Well, hell, sounds just like KANSAS to me!
Kansas… as bigoted as you think!
You lefties are kind of funny, sometimes.
Without naming names (just look up-thread, on this, or any other “Brownback” thread.)
Lefties, it is BIGOTED to claim that those in the South are some how not as “smart” as those in the North.
In one breath, or one post, some of you seem to think that you can attack the “right” for being “judgemental” and then launch into your own very biased judgements.
The left now goes after Sam for “marrying into money.”
Funny, that is precisely what John Kerry did, isn’t it?
The left also bashes Sam for going after Federal matching funds.
— Isn’t it the left that most strongly supports federal financing of elections?
You don’t like Sam Brownback.
We GET it.
Please, try to stick to the issues would you?
Why must you be SOOOOOOOO personal?
Could it be:
HATE! ??
(Said with the same sneer as the Church Lady used to say: “SATAN” on SNL)
“In countries that allow gay marriage, the rates of heterosexual marriage “have plummeted to where you have counties now in northern Europe where 80 percent of the first-born children are born out of wedlock.”Sam Brownback on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 in a debate in Durham, N.H
I don’t know about countries but I recall seeing studies that found much higher divorce rates in ‘red states’ as compared to ‘blue states’. As a long-time married heterosexual I find that I am in absolutely no way threatened by gay marriage.
Fear-mongering; nothing more.
I wonder with so many sitting Congress men running for the Presidency Obama, Mcain, Dennis Kunsich Ron Paul, and others if any of them have as dismal a voting attendance record as Sam if not what is Sams excuse?
I posted, long ago, that I think ANY sitting Senator will have trouble getting elected.We just do NOT elect very many Senators when they run for President.
No, they don’t TP.
Paul, the reason is that hate is often met against hate, especially when it is direct to those it affects. Can you really blame Tom or KFG for being angry that Sam wants to hurt their lives? Can you really blame me for wanting my gay friends to be able to have the same rights?It IS personal. While we’re fighting for rights, he’s fighting against them.
Would you be angry if there was a legitimate push to ban religion?
Re-read my comments. Cant find anything hateful, just truthful.
Please repost whatever you thought was “hateful” from me.
Or is just disagreeing and not LIKING sam hatred?
only in wingnuttia…
It angers me when someone runs for an office that is important, then totally disregards their responsiblilty for it. Not showing up to Congress for the job that the people of Kansas hired you to do is unacceptable, regardless of political creed or opinion.
Why on earth would you think we would trust you with the job of President when you can’t show up to your present job? If didn’t show up to work, I would get fired, not a promotion.
At least Bob Dole resigned his seat to run for President. Whether you agree with the man’s politics or not, at least he respected the office and recognized that if he was running for President someone needed to be doing his job. And he didn’t have the senate seat to fall back on if he lost. It was all or nothing.
FarmgirlI refer you to PMom.
One of you admits that there is “hate” on the left, but justifies it.
The other denies that there is any “hate” on the left.
For the record, I don’t hate any politician.
I try hard not to hate anyone, God will forgive me when I fail on that one, I hope.
Also, for the Gay Rights advocates: Is it your position that tolerance is not enough? How is supporting the status quo “hate”??
I have turned people into the police for ACTUAL “gay bashing” — however, I do NOT support gay marriage.
Do you consider my position hateful?
Yes, I do consider your position one of religious hate.
Is it your position that tolerance is not enough?
Well gosh paul, if your position is what you call tolerance, I’d PREFER to have equal civil rights and equal protection under the law.
WTF? And I noticed, you have not reposted any hate from me. And Pmom mentioned anger, not hate.
Perhaps, if you are a hater, all YOU hear is hate? Anyone who thinks heckovajobbrownieback is doing a bad job is a hater?
hehehehehheeh. No. I “tolerate” sam.
OK
So, trying hard NOT to put words in your mouth:
Those who disagree with you must, in fact, “hate” you?
Is it possible to disagree with you, and not want any actual, physical harm to come to you?
Oh, good grief. Look at the hypocrisy by the usual suspects. How many of the current presidential candidates have resigned from their Congressional seats to run for president?
Answer, NONE.
Hillary hasn’t. Obama hasn’t. McCain hasn’t. Paul, Kucinich, Dodd, Biden Hunter, Tancredo all have not resigned to run for president.
Selective outrage.
But Hillary, Obama, McCain, Paul, Kucinich, Dodd, Biden Hunter, Tancredo are not our Senator.
The less Brownback is in the Senate, the better.
Still…
He WAS elected to be there. He IS being paid to be there. Perhaps he SHOULD concentrate more on his job than on his absurd idea that he could EVER be President.
Whats his excuse for being absent to get the % stats he currently has??? He missed all those votes before even trying to run his so-called current campaign. We should except his resignation for Derilection of Duty! He only ran for Office to excuse his absence in Kansas and his absence in the representation of Kansans. We except his resignation, PERIOD!! Herbert West III, Publisher/Journalist, west.herb@yahoo.com
But Outlander, how many of those others have missed the %age of the vote Brownback has missed???
You ignored my question Paul. How angry would you be if religion were debated on being banned in America?
Do you think you’d be hot under the collar? Do you think you’d have a fit? I think you would…because I would hope you would.
EVEN if I think religion is the biggest cause of hate in the USA. I still would be furious if someone tried to infringe upon your CIVIL RIGHT to have that belief.
That is the difference.
Pmom
Nobody is talking about making gay sex “illegal” are they?
I don’t want to put you in jail for who you sleep with.
I must admit I have trouble with those on the right who seem obsessed with the gay issue, but I still don’t see the point in “gay marriage” — How have we survived all these thousands of years without it?
You can incorporate. You can own property jointly. You can name each other as “power of attorney” — it is hard to see what possible good would come out of the state “recognizing” gay marraige.
That does NOT mean that I want to make your lifestyle illegal, does it?
Good Heavens, Pmom
Here is my definition of the term”
“RADICAL” — those who will NOT allow mixed emotions or mixed feelings or moderation on a particular issue.”
Does any one know what days are the Donkeys (Dem) and Elephants (GOP) Days at the State fair? Cant seem to find it on the web page
Democrats have the even days at the fair and the Republicans are odd.
???,
Good one! lol
All the senators who are running for president – Clinton, Obama, McCain, Biden, Dodd, Brownback – miss votes. It’s a symptom of what our system has become that they have to spend a year campaigning nonstop before the primary season begins.
I NOTICED A LETTER TO THE WICHITA EAGLE EDITOR RECENTLY THAT CALLED FOR SHORTENING OF POLITICAL OFFICE TERMS.
The Kansas Governor’s term is four years … I would reduce it to two years.
Our various elected state-wide officers such as secretary of state, insurance commissioner and state treasurer have four year terms. I would DO AWAY WITH THESE ELECTED POSITIONS ALTOGETHER and replace with ONE professional finance director selected by the governor and approved by the Kansas legislature.
The Kansas Senate as I recall has four year terms … reduce to two year terms, same as the Kansas House of Representatives.
County and municipal elected positions including judges should go to two years … immediately, no question about this, elected at large, not appointed by a committee. Lets make local politicians go out and knock on doors, meet their constituents and BEG for their elected positions once again.
I haven’t seen politicians out in the neighborhoods for years.These prima-donna elected office holders are supposed to be “employees” of the voters BUT THEY SURE DON’T ACT LIKE IT … DO THEY?
“Econ101″ wrote:-
“Nobody is talking about making gay sex “illegal” are they?”
In fact, “Econ101″ the Republicans do just that.
Check out Lawrence vs. Texas, the Supreme Court 6-3 decision that overturned the Texas “Homosexual Conduct” law (Chapter 21, Sec. 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code).
George WMD Bush was governor when Texas took the appeal to the Supreme Court. George WMD Bush (and, later, Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Rehnquist) specifically advocated making gay sex illegal.
That’s hardly “nobody talking about making gay sex illegal,” no is it “Econ101?”
I have a feeling, Brownback like any slacker, will keep it up as long as we’ll continue to pay him to do so!
Let’s put people in congress that consider the institution to be co-equal to that of the Executive branch!
JWink
Shortening the term of office means MORE elections. Is that what we want?
Also, I happen to LIKE the fact that the Secretary of State, Commissioner of Insurance and State Treasurer are elected.
This gives us more checks and balances, it is healthy.
Long time
Nobody is talking about a Constitutional Amendment, in Kansas or Nationally, making gay sex illegal.
There is talk about a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage – so if gay sex is not illegal, then why would an amendment be needed to ban gay marriage?
Aren’t there still laws on the books against gay sex? And what about that slippery slope you Social Conservatives are always talking about? A slippery slope of banning gay marriage would lead to banning gay sex – wouldn’t it?
I still do not understand how same sex marriage could undermine a traditional marriage – unless the traditional couples have such an inferior complex to start with.
Perhaps the problem is not with the same sex marriage advocates but the traditional marriage advocates?
Paul, because it MEANS something to them.
Is your marriage sacred to you?
Paul – John Kerry already had money before he married the Heinz woman. Did Brownback come from money or did he orchestrate a convenient marriage in order to create the illusion that he is wealthy?
And as far as his religion goes, I find it a bit strange that he converts to Catholicism and the rest of his family did not. In the fundamental Baptist Church – that would be viewed as unevenly yoked and he would be looked down on for that. But yet these are the very same people in the South that supposedly support Brownback.
Sam cannot have his cake and eat it too. He courts the Catholic voters by becoming one of them but yet keeps his family in the other church to go after those voters.
I believe this is what Jesus was fighting about when he drove the vendors out of the Temple. One should never use the church to promote oneself.
I suppose obese sex is next to be outlawed. How about going to prison for being a brunette and coloring your hair to be blonde? I suppose ever wife out there has to Bow to her husband or go to prison if Brownback gets his way? What 2 consenting adults do to one another is their business!! I suppose we are headed to Prison for exercising sexual preference? Preference, Blonde instead of redheads, atheletic instead of plump, those are choices, preferences. Sexuality is inert, not preferenced!!! Not all wives do all the sex acts that Brownback and his uptight Wife do. Oh yea, she doesnt get a vote, she is a woman and its his Preference to tell her so. She should have ran out on that vote, you know the proposal of you will vs, I do. Lets all become cookie cutter dumba$$es. Lets all break the mold and be idiots like Brownback and his Puppet Wife. Lets all do it his way and accomplish nothing and get paid. Lets be a Kansas Politician! Lets become President and screvv over humanity for 4 more wonderful years. Lets skip out on reality. Just as I thought we could stand up and not have to bend over to Hail the Chief, Brownback slides back into town and demands a “Straight Forward New Twist or Bent View on His Political Positioning. He is trying to Erect a Campaign Slogan/Game Plan and it keeps coming up Short, as usual! So, “Vote for me”, I can get it up to par and keep it up to par! I’m serious. Herbert West III, Publisher/Journalist, Pre Presidental Candidate Hopeful. west.herb@yahoo.com See wen2k.com . I posted my Presidental intentions there about a year ago.
One of the reasons my daughter moved to Dallas to teach is the constant carping about how teachers in Wichita are well paid and they only work nine months of the year. My girl worked her butt off at KU, graduated in 04 with a bachlors in education and a masters in 05! She could have taught in Wichita’s middle schools but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Every time she was questioned about her career she got hammered when she told she was a teacher! That’s when she decided to take a teaching position in Richardson, Texas just outside of Dallas. She’s been there three years and enjoys it. She is never chastised for being a teacher and never hears such disgusting comments like what’s spouted here! Yes, there are some bad teachers just like there are some bad business people! That doesn’t mean all teachers are bad! Grow up, Wichita! You are losing some of your young people by being so rude and ignorant!!!