November 09, 2007
WH '08: Don't Quit Your Day Jobs! No, Seriously. Don't.
Many of the candidates for president say that the campaign finance system is in urgent need of repair, yet they are shelving the issue precisely because of said system. As a result, we've got the longest, most expensive and most annoying presidential election maybe ever.
Meanwhile, here inside the Beltway, Congress is still mostly deadlocked on such pressing concerns as the war and health care for disadvantaged children. Hence, disapproval ratings that have managed to exceed those of the pariah in chief, President Bush.
Coincidence?
An astonishing number of sitting lawmakers -- nine as of today -- are crisscrossing the country in their bids for the White House. They certainly can't make every roll call or floor debate, not when there are babies to manhandle, cows made out of butter to admire and Hooters girls to embrace. (Lord knows what's going on here.)
Might all this playing hooky in order to chase a dream that for some is very (very, very) distant explain why Congress doesn't seem to be accomplishing very much?
In 2004, Democratic nominee John Kerry's frequent absenteeism from the Senate made him vulnerable to Republicans' taunts.
"Senator Kerry, who hadn't been here all year, who's missed 80 percent of all votes, parachutes in for a day and then will be taking off once again," clucked then-Majority Leader Bill Frist. That criticism is a little too easy, though, particularly when the other guy isn't in Congress and doesn't have to strategize which votes he can afford to miss.
It's disputable whether the 2008 candidates need to be out on the trail quite so often and so early. In this week's National Journal cover story, Brian Friel looks at the pros and cons of running for president while still hanging on to day jobs in Congress. The con for taxpayers seems pretty darn clear. According to data compiled by NJ, the senator-candidates missed between 64 percent (John McCain) and 93 percent (Barack Obama) of votes last month. To be sure, all the candidates take pains to be back in Washington for key policy votes such as those related to the war, but it does beg the question: What are we paying these guys for?
The early sniping is being directed at Connecticut's Christopher Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday the effect Dodd's frequent absences are having on that panel in the midst of turbulence on Wall Street following the subprime lending collapse. The criticism is made all the more poignant by the fact that Dodd rates but an asterisk [PDF] in national polls.
A winnowing of the field would certainly help these candidates better focus on their day jobs, particularly on the Democratic side. Then again, if one of them wins the nomination, as opposed to, say, John Edwards, he or she may very well be up against a GOP candidate who isn't currently holding office (most of the leaders in that field are not) and has fewer constraints on his campaign schedule. None of the Senate Dems have said whether they will resign upon winning the nomination. Kerry, of course, is probably glad he held onto his Senate gig in 2004.
Posted at 1:09 PM
Posted to:
Barack Obama, Campaigns, Christopher Dodd, Congress, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Joseph Biden, Republicans, Senate, WH 2008
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