Posted on 10/24/2002 3:37:51 PM PDT by GeneD
It’s election season, a time when pundits analyze and moralize without pause. But do the commentators who make a big deal of politics actually vote?
Some have a hard time finding their way to the ballot box.
Maureen Dowd, who savages politicians in her New York Times columns, was AWOL from 9 of DC’s 12 elections from 1994 through 2000. A registered DC Democrat, she voted in two general elections and missed every primary and local contest.
Another Dem, The Capital Gang’s Margaret Carlson, also missed the eight DC primary and local elections during those years—despite writing an ode to the ballot box recently in Slate, saying, “I love to vote.”
CNN’s Judy Woodruff, a registered Democrat and a moderator of presidential debates, skipped 7 of 12 DC elections in that period.
The Washington Post’s Thomas Edsall, who’s covered politics for more than 20 years, also missed 7 of 12 in DC. A registered Democrat, Edsall attributes his poor showing to a lack of interesting candidates. When he misses an election, he says he “deeply regrets it.”
Chris Matthews, who doesn’t miss a chance to speak his mind on MSNBC’s Hardball, voted in only three of the last ten Montgomery County and municipal elections. His wife, Channel 7 anchor Kathleen, pulled the lever six times. Both are registered Dems.
Pundits often skip local contests. Though the Washington Post endorses candidates in the nonpartisan Montgomery County school-board primaries, editors Fred Hiatt and Steve Coll—both officially independents—have taken a pass on each of the past four. So have fellow independents Wolf Blitzer of CNN and Post political writer Dan Balz.
In Alexandria, where registrations are nonpartisan, Crossfire’s Tucker Carlson failed to show at recent elections for school board, city council, and state legislature. The Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot missed those votes and the 2001 gubernatorial.
Pundits whose records are spoiled by absenteeism in local elections include the New York Times’s William Safire (voted in 7 of 11 recently) and columnist Charles Krauthammer (6 of 11). Both are registered Republicans in Montgomery.
Who is Washington’s ballot-box patriot? Diane Rehm, NPR talk-show host and registered Bethesda Democrat. She’s 11 for 11 since 1994.
If you don't vote, you waive you b******* rights!
Tia
I guarantee you that if the Florida Legislature had stepped in and effectively declared the Presidency for Bush the howls for reform would have been heard from Hollywood to the Beltway and magnified by a horrified media - horrified that a state legislature should have so much power in a national election.
Personally, I love to take every chance I can to vote against the DemoCrime Party.
If these idiots don't want to vote; it is fine with me. But I do have a problem with their continual clucking and lecturing about citizenship and taking an interest in public affairs.
Don't some of Hollywood's liberal celebs have similar voting records?
I should add that one of them was the vote on "Proposal A", which is the biggest issue of the 90's in Michigan.
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