McCain, Bush and Palin – The Freeloading Riches Of The GOP

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images.thumbnail.jpegTurns out Sarah Palin has a very spotty attendance record in her brief experience as Governor of Alaska. Juneau is the state capital of Alaska. From the Juneau Empire:

Palin has spent little time in Juneau, rarely coming to the state capital except when the Legislature was in session, and sometimes not even then.

During a recent special session called by Palin herself, she faced criticism from several legislators for not showing up personally to push for her agenda.

Someone at the Capitol even printed up buttons asking "Where’s Sarah?" Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau, called it a telling question.

"At a time when her leadership was truly needed, we didn’t know where she was," Doll said.

Local Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore, on Tuesday night’s Countdown on MSNBC, confirmed that many members of the Alaskan legislature wore yellow "Where’s Sarah" buttons. Of course, this must be read in conjunction with the fact that Palin has bilked taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office (well over half of the time), charging a per diem allowance normally intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. She charged the State of Alaska for staying in her own house and away from her job at the state capital.

Habitually away from where her governing job, for which she is paid to attend and perform by the citizens; gee, that makes Sarah Palin just like….

George Bush. Although you can certainly make the argument that the country is better off when Bush is not on the job, the fact remains that he has been the most absentee President in modern history. As of March 2008, Bush had spent 452 days on vacation at his Crawford ranch in Texas; well over a full year of his seven years in office spent down on the farm ranch. And this, of course, doesn’t include the other fun filled time Bush spends slapping bikini clad babe’s butts at the Olympics and all the other larks he galavants off on.

Habitually away from his governing duties in Washington DC, for which he is paid to attend and perform by the citizens of this country; gee, that makes George Bush just like….

John McCain. McCain is the most absent senator in Congress, having missed 63 percent of the votes since the 110th Congress opened session on January 3, 2007. 63%. McCain’s absentee record even beats that of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), who was completely absent nearly a year while recovering from a brain hemorrhage.

In the calendar year of 2008, McCain has missed a whopping 82% of the votes cast in the United States Senate (160 out of 195 votes missed as of September 8, 2008; 32 of the 35 votes McCain made were over three days, with McCain only voting on a total of 5 days of the entire legislative session in 2008). McCain was absent from the job he was elected to perform for the citizens of Arizona 82% of the time; a job for which he is paid in excess of $165,000.00 a year and for which he and his family are given the finest healthcare plan in the world. McCain has not been present for one single vote in the Senate since April 8, 2008. None. Nada.

Here are some more facts and figures from Smintheus (Note: these figures are as of July 29, 2008, so almost every category is now higher and more egregious):

63% – How many votes in the Senate McCain has skipped during the 110th Congress (since January 2007).

96 – The number of Senate votes McCain has missed since his last recorded vote on April 8.

111 – The number of days since McCain last attended a committee hearing (of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on April 9).

25% – How many full SASC hearings McCain has attended during the 110th Congress.

89% – How many full SASC hearings McCain has skipped since April 2007 (32 out of the last 36 hearings).

2007 – The last year in which McCain attended any Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee hearings or subcommittee hearings.

The League of Conservation Voters noted in February that McCain has skipped every one of the 15 Senate votes on environmental issues that it deemed critical during this Congress.

This is a common thread between Bush, Palin and McCain; none of them are ever in the city they are supposed to be in, at their job, doing the work the people pay them to do. Heck, Palin even charges bilks the State of Alaska for being away from the capital and holed up in her own mansion on a lake. When every element of our society is flatlining, Bush, Palin and McCain are constantly MIA from their job, and they seem to feel entitled to do that on the people’s dime. Like Dick Cheney, they consider it to be "their due".

McCain, Palin and Bush don’t put "country first"; if they did, they would consistently be in the city where their job was located, doing the work they were elected to do. McCain, Palin and Bush are not "public servants"; if they were, they would be serving their constituents instead of themselves. No, McCain, Palin and Bush are more like grifters living off of the largesse and goodwill of the citizens, bleeding them dry and living high on the hog (with lipstick) in the process.

In a sense, McCain, Palin and Bush are analogous to The Riches in the excellent FX television series by the same name about an Irish Traveller family of con artists and thieves that steal a large amount of money, get involved in a car accident that kills a very wealthy couple (the eponymous Riches), and choose to pursue a "better life" by adopting the Riches’ identity, and opulent mansion, and taking up their life in an affluent gated community.

McCain, Palin and Bush are the freeloading Riches of the GOP; taking the citizen’s money and living high off the hog in mansions without doing their duty and work to earn it. Time to rid ourselves of the grifters.

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  4. lllphd says:

    backatcha.

    thanks for these stats. it would probably be a good thing to have the same sorts of numbers for obama over the same period, just be be sure there is a highly significant discrepancy. i’ll see what i can do about that later today.

    meanwhile, just so’s you’ll know (and you likely do but just didn’t think it when you were writing this), that 29 july date was the end of the session before congress broke for august, as is their normal pattern, and they just returned this week, as the conventions kept them away. so i doubt mccain’s numbers have risen any if at all.

    but still, this is good stuff. and the riches comparison is totally apropos.

  6. WilliamOckham says:

    Correction:

    As of March 2008, Bush had spent 452 days on vacation at his fake Crawford ranch in Texas; well over a full year of his seven years in office spent down on the farm fake ranch.

    Per Wikipedia, a ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool.

    Bush’s country home in Crawford ain’t no ranch.

  7. Leen says:

    Bmaz http:
    //www.c-span.org/
    hearing on increased funding for Iraq. Kyl was on the Senate floor pushing for an attack on Iran

  8. SaltinWound says:

    In California, I’m not crazy about the precedent Arnold is setting, living in Brentwood and commuting to Sacramento.

  11. skdadl says:

    Meanwhile, Biden climbs on the train every morning and truckles down to Washington, and then he climbs back on and truckles home every night …

  13. klynn says:

    bmaz,

    Thanks for picking up on this. I hinted to the “theme” yesterday to Marcy in her “Stay-at-Home Subsidies” post @ comment 2.

    Glad you ran with it…It had me in stitches yesterday as I compared their attendance records!

    Here’s the site that tracks this:

    http://projects.washingtonpost…..e-missers/

  15. DefendOurConstitution says:

    Just what we need: an absentee President with terrible policies. The only question then is will McShame’s appointees be more or less incompetent than Bush’s?

  16. BayStateLibrul says:

    Yo Keith, it ain’t gonna be a White Sox and Cubbies World Serious?
    Ya can’t suck up to Obama thatta way.

    At least, McCain didn’t have his Navy Lid on today. Doesn’t he
    look fucking stupid… all he HAS his war stories… we ARE so fucked
    if he is elected.
    Palin repeated her lies again today, she is a modern day Jane Swift.
    I’m starting to lose hope again…

  17. BayStateLibrul says:

    “This was a very serious event that impacted our stock, and caused trading to be halted,” she said. “This is what happens when people are irresponsible and don’t check facts.” — The United Airlines Fuck UP at
    the NYSE.

    Ditto on election day… irreversible impact on our lives, that will cause more casualties to our soldiers.

  19. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Living away from the notional seat of power simply moves the seat to wherever the power brokers meet, a moveable pork feast, a political port-a-potty.

    Living away from where the public understands that acts of government take place derides those acts, derides the purpose and functioning of government, while simultaneously hiding where such acts do take place. They are announced in the rotunda or on the floor, but take place in lobbyists’ offices, gated communities, country clubs, private bars and aircraft, yachts and fairways. Out of the public eye, with no public record of what’s been decided, by whom, and in whose interest. All we know is that it’s not in the people’s interest, but it is on their taxpaying backs.

    It means fait accompli are announced, but like Cheney’s energy and warmaking task forces, the process and players are hidden beyond view, beyond public involvement.

    The neocons even do this with junior CongressCritters. Since Newt Gingrich’s time, these have been forced by peer pressure and ambition to live in Metro DC, like freshmen in a dorm, away from family, constituents, social settings beyond the party hierarchy that empower and focus them. Like wearing blinders and earmuffs and mittens, this isolates them, centralizes power and assures those in power of fewer attempts to undermine theirs, while they set about undermining their opposition’s.

    Even Bush lived in the governnor’s mansion in Austin, but maintained homes elsewhere. Palin and Ahnuld exemplify a disdain for open government the neocons are rearing, like some ungainly hybrid fungus that can’t stand open air or the light of day, but grows beautifully in the damp dark on a bed of manure. Time for a little sunshine and a strong wind of change; a little breeze will only spread the spores.

  22. earlofhuntingdon says:

    As for Palin, Alaskan taxpayers may choose to pay for a governor’s mansion, with its status, staff and security, but in such an egalitarian state, they could hardly expect the to pay for her to stay in her own home, while thousands worry about paying for winter heating, or for her to travel to their seat of government as if she were visiting rather than heading it. But then she isn’t heading it; it’s a stepping stone and she has no more interest in actually running it well than Bush did in Texas.

    At least in Texas, everyone knows the governor and legislature do as little as possible. The legislature, for example, meets only ever other year. Power explicitly rests in state agencies and with a few political families. But that’s an exception. Elsewhere, people hire public officials to do their bidding. Palin, like a good neocon, takes the money, but does her own business, then dodges liability for not doing the people’s. She would be at home in BushCheney’s Washington, helping to make their corruption permanent.