Posted on 02/06/2008 6:16:04 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain skipped a difficult Senate vote Wednesday on whether to make 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans eligible for rebate checks as part of a proposed economic stimulus package.
The Arizona senator's decision to miss the vote appeared to come at the last minute, after his plane had landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington just before the proceedings opened on the Senate floor.
Asked Wednesday morning to comment on the pending vote, McCain talked about the need to pass a stimulus measure quickly. Later, on his plane, he said he was not sure he would make the vote.
"I haven't had a chance to talk about it at all, have not had the opportunity to, even," McCain said. "We've just been too busy, focused on other stuff. I don't know if I'm doing that. We've got a couple of meetings scheduled."
Whichever way McCain may have voted, it would have been a difficult choice given his status as the Republican presidential front-runner.
Senate Democrats cleverly bundled the rebates for seniors and veterans, key voting blocs, with expanded unemployment benefits and home heating subsidies for the jobless and poor.
President Bush and Republican leaders, as well as conservatives McCain was scheduled to woo on Thursday, vehemently oppose the expanded benefits and subsidies.
That put McCain in a bad political spot.
Voting "no" with Republican leaders would have offended millions of Social Security recipients and the disabled veterans not scheduled to receive rebates. Voting "yes," on the other hand, risked alienating Bush, GOP leaders and conservatives already suspicious of McCain's political leanings. McCain was speaking Thursday before a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, a group that booed him last year in absentia.
For McCain, not voting meant not going on the record either way. He has missed all eight Senate roll call votes this year.
Republicans prevailed in blocking the Democratic proposal, saying they will try again later to include seniors and veterans. GOP leaders would not say how McCain would have voted. Asked whether there was any reason to believe he would have broken with the party and voted for the Democrats' package, Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona said: "I have no reason to believe that."
McCain's absence, he added, would not have changed the outcome of the vote.
There was confusion among McCain's his staff about whether he would make the vote. Campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said when he landed that she believed he was headed to the Capitol to vote, but a second spokeswoman, Brooke Buchanan, said later that he would not make it.
Democrats, including a spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, jumped on McCain's absence. Clinton voted for the measure, which failed on a 58-41 vote. Supporters needed 60 votes to prevail. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid had voted in favor, but switched it at the last moment in a parliamentary move that allows him to bring up the measure for another vote at a later date.
"By failing to stand up as the deciding vote, John McCain let our families down," said Clinton aide Phil Singer. "Tonight's events prove once again that we need a president who will be ready from Day One to act in the interests of middle-class families and turn our ailing economy around."
“I haven’t had a chance to talk about it at all, have not had the opportunity to, even,” McCain said. “We’ve just been too busy, focused on other stuff. I don’t know if I’m doing that. We’ve got a couple of meetings scheduled.”
Whichever way McCain may have voted, it would have been a difficult choice given his status as the Republican presidential front-runner.
Senate Democrats cleverly bundled the rebates for seniors and veterans, key voting blocs, with expanded unemployment benefits and home heating subsidies for the jobless and poor.
—
any doubt as to how he would have voted?
should we get into a P%$%**$ing contest about how many votes each of the senators running for president have missed? Has Hillary had perfect attendance in the Senate for the past year? Her spokepeople are going to brag that she was there to vote today but McCain missed it, and thus she is ready to lead from Day One because of that?
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., followed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and traveling press secretary Brooke Buchanan, steps off his charter plane as he arrives at Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Va., the day after his Super Tuesday primary elections wins Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Can you say VeeP Grahamnesty, children? I knew you could. ;-)
Piss away.
I can't see that he has much of a choice but to try and quack like a conservative from now to November. That is, if he actually wants to be president. I'm not sure how many people will buy it. But that being said, I figure he would've stuck with the party on this one.
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is surrounded by staff and supporters at they monitor the Super Tuesday election returns at his home in Phoenix, Ariz., Tuesday evening, Feb. 5, 2008. From left are: advisor Mark McKinnon, campaign CEO Rick Davis, sitting, McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC., Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-CT., and Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
If moderates on both sides of the aisle think they are our best hope, then they should have started their own damn party, it's not like they don't have the money and connections here and abroad, instead of dragging all of us thru the unfolding debacle that lies ahead.
Bite your tongue! As if McCain wouldn't be bad enough without his little lapdog, too!
Just another reason I won’t vote for this “fugazzi”.
Shaking my head yet again...
Add McSpineless
Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”
is that man sleeping or dead?
Did Hillary and Obama miss it too?
No, he’s praying for a different GOP nominee.
Looks like Obama made it,, not Hillary..
“For McCain, not voting meant not going on the record either way. He has missed all eight Senate roll call votes this year.”
I get the Congressional votes delivered to my e-mail box (via MEGA VOTE @ capitoladvantage.com).
I hardly EVER see McCain casting a vote. For the longest time, all I’ve ever seen by his name is “not voting.”
Not voting, not voting, not voting, not voting, not voting....over and over and and over and OVER again.
It's pretty obvious the guys standing up are trying to figure out the best way to wake up the guy asleep in his chair.
Guy next to JM: "John, I really think you need to add some new ideas into your campaign"
Lieberman to self:"I wouldn't mind a good nap right now"
Guy in black: "How 'bout I just shake his chair"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.