I'm tired of hearing about Kerry missing all the meetings.

Is there somewhere on the net I can find attendence information? I mean Senate votes, committee meetings, everything!

I've had a complaint for years about almost ALL elected officials "working Part Time" on my Dollar! I only wish I had a job where I could get to work Monday afternoon (or maybe not until Tuesday) and leave Thrusday night (or the latest Friday by noon)!

I have no idea what Kerry's record of attendence is, but I suspect the rest of 'em don't want anyone to know because THEY'RE ALL GUILTY!!!

"Bush did business with Bin Laden's bankers while Kerry...was fighting to shut it down to terrorist and drug connections."

"Long before September 11, 2001, George W. Bush got a 25 million dollar loan from the same bankers that dealt with bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, while John Kerry was fighting to stop this bank's global laundering of money for drug lords and terrorists. John Kerry shut it down. He's been fighting terrorism at its roots since before George Bush ran for office."


Follow the Money

Kerry did plenty of work, while Bush was still playing and drinkin'.

Try vote-smart.org

Since the manipulation of the mid-terms in '02 (and perhaps long before), Democrats in the Senate have been rendered virtually powerless any way.

He said to Daschle he'd return for any vote that appeared to be close. Only one has.

Senators and House Members don't only work Mondays through Thursdays. Those are the days that the Senate and House are in session, but the members do plenty of other things besides vote and attend committee meetings in the Capitol.

On Thursdays, most of them return to their Districts where they meet with constituents, attend meetings, give speeches, do site visits, conduct field hearings, attend events, and do all sorts of other things as a result of being instantly recognizable and on 24-hour call.

A House member once said that she was damned if she did and damned if she didn't. When she was in Washington, her constituents complained that she was not in the District and was, thus, out of touch with her constituents. But when she was in the District, people demanded to know "why aren't you in Washington representing us?!"

We can say all sorts of things about these people, but they DO work hard - very hard.

meeting people, giving speeches etc, is MAKING MONEY FOR THEIR RE-ELECTION!

How many times when you called your Rep's office or Sen's office, in Wash or at home, have you actually talked to the official? I can tell you I NEVER HAVE! Some do have very efficient staffs who either take care of your problem, or say "I will certainly relay your opinion to my boss."

I have worked on the Hill and there's just no way they can talk to every constituent who calls. House members get hundreds of calls come in a day - even more letters. Senators, of course, because they represent an entire state, get even more - usually thousands of letters a week.

And most Members, though not all, make sure that every one of the letters that come to them are answered. They all depend heavily upon their staffs who, for the most part, do excellent constituent service and getthe problems handled quickly and thoroughly.

Most members also do things such as Town Hall Meetings and other things to enable them to have direct contact with their constituents. Most of them will meet with constituents when they visit Washington. Right up until two weeks before Kerry picked him, John Edwards regularly held Tarheel Thursdays in Washington, where any of his constituents could come and ask him any question they wanted. But there's just no way that they can take every call. They'd never get ANYTHING done.

You intimated that when they aren't in session, they are still working FOR their constituents, holding town meetings and visiting with constituents at home. All I said was that I have never had MY Senator or Representative hold any town meeting, or speak to me. Sure, they have speaking engagements, but they're always events held in Atlanta, and are usually paid events. I can't drive anymore, so I can't realistically get to Atlanta, 60 miles away. Nor do I make enough money to pay to hear him speak.

It's really no secret that all these folks have to continually raise money for re-election, and that's what they spend most of their time doing. They're sure not going to bother with me. All I can do is vote!

Need I say more! Nathan Deal at least has someone send me a form letter when I contact his office. I NEVER hear from Saxby...EVER!

Seriously . . .

I don't know much about Deal, but he should be more accessible given his area of responsibility is smaller. I'll bet he does events in your district that don't require paid tickets - check with one of his District offices.

I don't know what you wrote him about when you got the form letter back. But if it was about a big issue on which he got lots of mail, it wouldn't be unusual for them to send a form letter in response since there's just not enough staff to give personal answers to letters that are coming in volume. You're much more likely to get a personal response if you're writing about something specific to you - if you're weighing in on an issue that they're getting bombarded on, you'll likelu get a form letter back.

Saxby Chambliss is a lost cause. But you have a good chance, though, to get another decent Senator - if you guys can get Denise Majette elected, you'll be in great shape. She's very good and very much there.

CHENEY'S 11-year record;

96th Congress: 4 Sponsored; 0 became Law

97th Congress: 4 Sponsored: 0 became Law

98th Congress: 8 Sponsored: 0 became Law

99th Congress: 7 Sponsored: 1 became Law

(H.R.1246 : A bill to establish a federally declared floodway for the Colorado River below Davis Dam.)

100th Congress: 7 Sponsored: 1 became Law

(H.R.712 : A bill for the relief of Lawrence K. Lunt.)

101st Congress: 1 Sponsored: 0 became Law

A total of 2 bills passed.

-Bill Frist, the Republican Majority Leader, has sponsored 88 bills in the 108th Congress and zero have become law.

In the 107th Congress, Frist sponsored 52 bills and 1 became law. It was a bill to authorize and urge the President to promote democracy in Zimbabwe.


-Kerry; Sponsored 57 bills passed into law

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/kerry_bills.cfm

Kerry's Bills either sponsored or co-sponsored

For the 108th Congress sponsored bills by Kerry had 48, for co-sponsored 436 have his name on it.

For the 107th Congress sponsored bills by Kerry 146, co-sponsored 467.

For the 106th Congress sponsored bills by Kerry 63, co-sponsored 473.

For the 105th Congress sponsored bills by Kerry 40, co-sponsored 268.

For the 104th Congress sponsored bills by Kerry 92, co-sponsored 233.


http://kerry.senate.gov/bandwidth/issues/legislation.ht...

Just remind the voters of that.

Frist: 1

Cheney: 2

Kerry: 58


He got another one passed, so make it 58 now as we wanna be accurate. :D

voters. All those other add are not believed. Funny, isn't it?

Every campaign down to alderman looks to interpret attendance as it has for decades in my experience at least. It is a feeble gesture but irresistible since it sounds so easy and puts the other guy on the defensive.

But it has been overused so much people can almost playback the whole dialog subconsciously and ignore it whatever the merits.

Again, this is the least of our worries except if that is the type of old ammo their are loading from their wet powderhorns, November will be a humdrum landslide.

Bush missed out on September 11. He was asleep at the wheel.

missed only ONE LESS meeting than Kerry. They have other ways of conducting businsess on those committees and attendance is not key.

And WTF was Bunnybutt doing in the first 10 years of Kerry's Senate career while Kerry was learning the ropes, attacking Bush Sr. money-laundering operations, and busting open Iran Contra?

THE ENERGIZER WAS GETTING DRUNK EVERY NIGHT BY THE POOL IN MIDLAND OR ON THE YACHT AT KENNEBUNKPORT, THAT'S WHAT!

AND GUESS WHAT? HIS ATTENDANCE WAS PERFECT!!!!

I would love to be tired of hearing that in the media, but they ignore that fact for some reason.

ADD to that the HUNDREDS of campaign trips he's made since the very first days in office

those two simple shots should MORE than shut the mouths of those jerks who parrot that lame line

you need SOUND BITE answers to go up against SOUND BITE charges

Where they do a lot of preening and prawning for the folks back home, especially in an election year. I think his attendance record was much better in the private intelligence hearings? Correct me if I am wrong...