Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain attended an economic forum in Aspen Thursday where he chastised Congress for going on recess "while people are paying $3.75 a gallon for gas." (source)
This from a man that has missed 407 votes (63.8%) during the current Congress, including one to "increase the supply and lower the cost of petroleum by temporarily suspending the acquisition of petroleum for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve" (S 2284). He's been "on recess" for the majority of his term. (In fairness, of course, Obama has missed 45.5%, though the 20% difference is notable).
Both McCain and I are paid by the tax-payers of Arizona. We are both public servants. I can only imagine what would happen to me if I missed 64% of my classes.
As an aside, the average missed vote percentage is 5.2%. If we ignore McCain, Obama, Clinton and Tim Johnson (who suffered a stroke in 2006), we see that nearly twice as many Republicans (11) have above average rates as Democrats (6, and one of those was Ted Kennedy who suffered a stroke).
As another aside, I'll note that Bush has gone on vacation again - this a mere three days after returning from watching the Olympics (and the beach volley ball squad) on the public dime.
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So does this mean the democrats are working really hard to not get things done/capitulate to republicans?
I'm not sure that makes me feel better.
Frankly, I think I'm ok with Bush being on vacation from now straight on 'til January 9. At this point, I'll gladly play him to clear brush on his ranch and not get us involved in a second cold war and/or WWIII.
Er, pay him.