Presidential Candidates and Senate Voting During the Week of Oct. 15-19

It's hard not to talk presidential politics when one is covering Senate matters. Sam Brownback (KS) dropped out of the race today but that still leaves Hillary Clinton (NY), John McCain (AZ), Christopher Dodd (CT), Barack Obama (IL), and Joe Biden (DE). I have found it interesting to observe how many votes these senators are showing up for amidst their campaign scheduling.

Dodd (CT) has announced that he is renting an apartment in Iowa and will live there with his wife and children until the caucuses are over. He is arranging to have his daughter enroll in kindergarten there. Dodd was in and out of the Senate already this past week. He missed the only vote of Oct. 15. Then on Oct. 16 he was there for the first four votes of the day but missed a 16:16 vote only to return for the next vote at 17:01. The Dems were lucky he got back for that 17:01 vote because they needed 50 votes to table a Dole Amendment and got exactly 50. So Dodd's vote truly counted. But then in eight votes the following day (Thursday), Dodd was a no vote in all eight.

As spotty as Dodd has been, Clinton and Obama have been virtually absentee senators of late. Sure, they sometimes show up for the important, final-passage-type votes. But in that tabling motion of Oct. 16, when the Dems had exactly 50 to kill a Dole Amendment, Obama, Clinton, and Biden were no-votes. Had Dodd also been absent, the Amendment would not have been tabled and, under Senate rules, it is customary to concede that an amendment is agreed to if a tabling motion is unsuccessful.

Clinton had the quirkiest voting record of the last week. Look back to Oct. 16 where the Senate voted eight times—seven times on amendments to the Commerce, Health, and Science Spending bill, and then finally a vote on final passage of the bill. Clinton—and Obama for that matter—were no-votes for the entire day. Even Biden made it back for a vote on the final passage of the bill.

Now look at Oct. 18, eight more votes, all on amendments to the Labor, HHS, and Education Spending Bill for FY 2008. Clinton is there for the first vote of the day at 12:33, a vote to table a DeMint Amendment that would limit funding for a Charlie Rangel Public Service Center in Harlem. She votes against limiting funding for the building (an earmark, by the way, which Rangel himself seemed to insert in the bill in the House). Then Clinton misses three votes before returning at 15:37 to vote against a Corker Amendment that would take money away from an earmark in the bill devoting money to the construction of a Woodstock museum...in New York. Then Clinton leaves for the rest of the day, missing three more votes.

Obama, who is running in part on a platform of education reform, didn't show up all day. Actually, Obama didn't enter a single vote all week.

McCain missed a few votes on Thursday but was generally present last week. Biden is in and out, showing up for a few more votes than Clinton.