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Gephardt Goes MIA
By Matt Margolis | July 26, 2003
Dick Gephardt, Democratic presidential hopefully has now effectively killed his chances of getting the nomination.
Gephardt has missed voting 356 times, or 90% of House votes as of July 21st…
That’s quite a record, don’t you think? You’d think that since Democrats claim to represent “working families” and “working people” that they’d show their advocacy for “working” by showing up for work.
Well, that puts a lot into perspective.
I go to work everyday. I’ve never even taken a sick day. I actually believe in the idea that when I’m getting paid to do a job, that means I’m supposed to show up and do the job.
Dick Gephardt’s failure to do his job helped a Republican victory in the House this week. By not showing up, the Republican backed bill proposing to overhaul the Head Start education program won by a single vote.
The 217-216 Republican victory came after midnight Thursday and was so tenuous that Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla., recovering from a car accident, was brought in by wheelchair. But Gephardt, the former House Minority leader, had left Thursday evening for a two-day campaign swing through South Carolina, and the Head Start vote became one of hundreds he has missed this year.
Rep. John Sullivan, a Republican, made it in a wheelchair. Gephardt, pursuing his political aspirations left his post. Hmmmm… Who’s the one with the real work ethic – the Democrat or the Republican?
Gephardt said although he opposes the bill, he doesn’t think his vote would have made a difference.
“I try to make as many of the votes as I can, but the Republicans tend to produce as many votes as they need to win these things, unfortunately,” he said during a campaign stop in South Carolina. “They are in control. They have enough votes to do that.”
How disingenuous. The “My vote wouldn’t have counted,” line is just his way of saying (without really saying it) that the Republican majority makes the Democrats presence irrelevant – just another scare tactic trying to suggest that the Republicans have a monopoly on the government and are out of control. Of course, this is incredibly false, considering the ridiculous tyranny of the minority in the Senate with judicial nominees. In other words, Gephardt is on damage control, trying to save his image and his chances of getting the nomination… however I think stunts like this will ultimately hurt him, and just about kill his chances of getting the nomination. This like this tell his constituency that he is unreliable – that he’s more concerned with his political goals than doing the job he was elected to do and gets paid to do.
I really have no idea what liberals are planning to do or how they are looking at their choice of a Democratic candidate. I would like to hear from those who post on this blog what they think about Gephardt, and his lack of voting… Does it affect what you think of him? Were you even going support him anyway? Does stuff like this even matter to you? To the conservatives reading this, what do you think of Gephardt’s lack of voting, and do you agree that this hurts his chances?
Topics: Bush 2004 |
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July 26th, 2003 at 9:51 pm
So, Gephardt (D-Russia) believes that his vote wouldn’t have counted even though the GOP won by one damn vote! This guy’s math must be terrible. Yeah, I want him trying to balance the budget. That’s for sure.
With Dems like this running around, Bush/Cheney in ‘04 will be a breeze.
July 27th, 2003 at 5:40 pm
Democrats have never believed that individual votes coutned… i.e., Gore didn’t think that the overseas military ballots should count, nor, basically any vote for bush.
July 27th, 2003 at 9:35 pm
Right– say, why did Jeb Bush hire a database company to purge 20,000 valid voters from Florida’s registered voter list in 2000?
Oh right- because Republican’s KNOW that every vote counts.
July 27th, 2003 at 9:53 pm
wow…this thread already got GoreJacked…
July 27th, 2003 at 10:06 pm
Convicted felons do not have the right to vote in Florida. So, what’s your point? If you want to debate about suffrage rights for felons, you’ll have to wait until I decide to blog about it.
July 27th, 2003 at 10:28 pm
Matt– you know as well as I that the people who were eliminated from the voter lists weren’t felons. In most instances they had the same name as a convicted felon– so they eliminated everyone with the same name.
Just the facts, Matt.
July 27th, 2003 at 10:50 pm
I bet you care so much about disenfranchisement and voter fraud that you want Hillary Clinton to be investigated for all those votes that she got from people who were dead. Or the votes she got in trade for pardons. Other shit like that…
Oooooohhhh… I bet that shit keeps you up at night.
July 27th, 2003 at 11:11 pm
I hope you’re including the military in that, Cole.
I was here at Ground Zero, where Democratic lawyers were high fiving when a military absentee ballot was disqualified due to the postage date stamp.
July 28th, 2003 at 8:46 am
I know that the Mass State legislators get a per diem of something like $500, or maybe more… Do US Reps and Senators get the same? If they do, what a fucking rip off. Atleast he wouldn’t be getting that.