Edwards has a lifetime 84.8% voting record in the Senate - Cheney lies

[ohioan]

In last night's debate, Cheney said Edwards has "one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate."

In truth, Edwards has an 84.8% voting record in the Senate. In each of his first four years, he had a perfect or near perfect record:

1999 Cast 371 out of 374 votes for a 99.2% voting record
2000 Cast 298 out of 298 votes for a 100% voting record
2001 Cast 377 out of 380 votes for a 99.2% voting record
2002 Cast 253 out of 253 votes for a 100% voting record
2003 Cast 281 out of 459 votes for a 61.2% voting record
2004 Cast 84 out of 198 votes for a 42.4% voting record

OVERALL Edwards has cast 1664 out of 1962 votes for a 84.8% voting record.

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/a_three_sections_with_teasers/votes.htm

[veteran_for_peace]

1. Send this to the media

[underpants]

3. Send them these too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x988498


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x988604

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],


[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],


ABC
http://www.abcnews.go.com/service/help/abccontact.html






[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 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[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

[mahina]

15. Yow- that was fun...

I never did that before. But it added like 700 people to my address book! Yikes!
Worth it for the cause, thanks for the list!

[Ksec]

44. How did you do that?

Just Copy paste the list into your email TO area?

[mahina]

49. Yep, but it didn't work...

Later I got a message, after it added all those people to my addy book :(, that the addresses weren't valid email addresses. Must be something in the punctuation?
Anyways...

[Princess Turandot]

58. It's better to use the BCC line..

so it doesn't look like a mass-mailing. If you call up an Outlook Express message window, go to the 'View' menu and click on 'all headers' and the BCC line should appear.Then copy & paste the addresses into that line. Some might come back but they should mostly go through.

Some ISP's supposedly limit the number of messages you can send at once, but mine doesn't.

[LiberalFighter]

59. You should be able to create different address books

I don't use IE's Outlook but use Netscape.

I have address books for:
Family
Local Politics
US Senate
US House
State House
State Senate
Local Media

It makes the addresses more manageable.

[SoCalDemocrat]

37. So what is Cheney's attendance record

I followed the link but I couldn't figure out where the figures were by Senator.

If Cheney presided, what are his numbers?

Lets compare his to Edwards for 99-03 since we know Edwards was campaigning for President in 04.

[lanparty]

45. According to him ...

... he's usually there on Tuesdays. Geez, Edwards is there on Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat ... Damn Edwards and his poor attendance!!!!

I guess you can't blame Cheney though. His job is being president of the Senate, but he's rarely their. Bush's job is being President of the United States. He's rarely there either!!!!

Just think, if Bush had just a little time for Richard Clark before taking the LONGEST vacation in presidential history, we might have AVERTED the 9/11 disaster!!!!

[LibeMatt]

52. Edwards attendance for 99-02

Discounting 2003 and 2004, when he was out campaigning, according to the figures provided in the initial post on this thread, we find:

Total votes: 1305
Edwards' attended: 1299

99.54% of votes made, only SIX TOTAL missed.

Isn't this the number Ivory Soap uses to tout its purity?

Imagine if W had this attendence record in the White House, maybe he would have actually gotten something productive done. OK, maybe not, he'd have to get rid of his shady advisors for that :-)

[jmowreader]

57. No, Edwards' voting record was purer than Ivory Soap

Ivory Soap is 99 and 44/100 percent pure.

John Edwards' record, until he started running for president, was 99 and 54/100 percent pure.

[Jack from Charlotte]

12. Something you better watchout for.....

84.4% sounds good. However, if the average senator had attendence record of 89% then it's a problem.

We need the avg of all 100 in order to rank JE.

[Jack from Charlotte]

16. Average voting attendence for those years was about 96%.

So 84.4% might be pretty low. Watch it.

[factcheck]

32. eeeek!

Actually it was about 98.12% :(

[RUDUing2]

24. I found this as well (M

http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=CNC68243

Roll Call Vote Analysis (for John Edwards)

Year Voting Participation Party Support Presidential Support

2003 61% 97% 41%
2002 100% 84% 76%
2001 99% 91% 67%
2000 100% 94% 92%
1999 99% 92% 87%

[K8-EEE]

2. Lie, Dick, LIE!!

Fucking liar.

[lanparty]

46. Isn't Cheney lucky he gave the WRONG URL ...

... jeez, otherwise he would have pointed to a REAL fact checking organization instead of his synchopantic spinsters over at Faux News.

[Ruby Romaine]

4. u have a typo-Cast 371 out of 274 votes -did u mean 271?

[ohioan]

6. Thanks - it was 371 out of 374 votes - I corrected it

[evilqueen]

5. typo on 1999, I think n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Just out of curiosity--what was Cheney's voting record

in the Senate?

[huskerlaw]

10. I have no idea, but...

given how he voted when he did show up, I would think the lower the percentage, the better! ;)

[Jackpine Radical]

18. D'Oh. Cheney's record in the House, I mean.

[newyawker99]

31. Hi huskerlaw!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[RhodaGrits]

8. So proof that Edwards was there the majority of time. And

Cheney was meeting behind closed doors with Repubs on Tuesday and never saw him and lied about it - Have i got it right?

[Bleacher Creature]

9. That's great info, but don't give this issue any legs.

If Edwards had a 100% voting record the Repugs would be all over him for spending too much time in Washington and being out of touch with the rest of America.

As a bunch of people on this board have stated -- this is all a non-starter.

[Andromeda]

34. You might be right but I think it's ...

important to know this because this is something the Rethugs love to thump the two Johns over the head with.

From that aspect I don't feel this is a non-starter. Any detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem, could be important to shore up Kerry/Edwards credibility and to diminish Bush/Cheney's image.

[MazeRat7]

11. Wow... they will lie when the truth is easier

Great work, that is just astonishing. I was concerned by that attendance remark. Not any more, I am passing this on.

Thanks again!

MZr7

[Old and In the Way]

13. This wouldn't be an issue if the House/Senate had 21st century

technology at their disposal. Why do our Senators/Representitive have to be physically anchored in Washington to vote? They ought to be spending more time with their constituents, anyway. And away from the lobbyists.

Edwards record is quite good, considering that a run for the Presidency in the primaries started in 2003.

[Bandit]

23. They are supposed to be the greatest deliberative body on earth

They are supposed to debate the bills and actually hammer out the issues. Not just cast some vote from wherever.

[Old and In the Way]

25. Haven't seen much of that in the past 10 years or so.

Unless we count Prayer in Schools, Pledge of Alleigence, and Gay Marriage.

[LiberalFighter]

61. It would eliminate the need to replace congress members if the majority...

of them are killed as a result of a terrorist act.

Wouldn't even have to be back in their own state... they could have regional offices to conduct hearings and report their votes.

[benito]

14. It's been noted

Thanks for your note. This has been widely reported. In fact, a Nexis check
reveals 85 hits today alone. So rest assured the press has indeed reported
this.

Best Regards, Dru

Ms. Dru Sefton
National Correspondent
Newhouse News Service
Washington, D.C.

[LSK]

17. Ok, how are you coming up with these #s? need a better link

Freepers are going to find it where you gave the link, and they are not going to dig all day either.

[MADem]

20. Who gives a rat's behind

...what FREEPERS think? Why do the research for them? Trust me, major media outlets pay interns in the dark to check those numbers. If they are true, and they are, the low paid slugs will find the sourcing.

Make the right wing do their own work. They steal enough from this site as it is.

[huskerlaw]

19. I just posted this...

On several Live Journal blogs...and already have people passing it on from there. Excellent job!

[DebJ]

21. From where in the above site did you extract this info?

I'd love to pass it on, but that link shows votes per piece of legislation. Where did you get the totals?

[RUDUing2]

22. what I dont understand is why Edwards didn't bring up (M

Bush's vacations? If Edwards attendance as a senator was worthy of question then isn't Cheney's bosses attendance as president even more worthy of question?

http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031001.html

According to an August 2003 article in the Washington Post, President Bush has spent all or part of 166 days during his presidency at his Crawford, Texas, ranch or en route. Add the time spent at or en route to the presidential retreat of Camp David and at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Bush has taken 250 days off as of August 2003. That's 27% of his presidency spent on vacation. Although to be fair, much of this time is classified as a "working vacation."

Bush isn't the first president to get away from his work. George Bush Sr. took all or part of 543 vacation days at Camp David and in Kennebunkport. Ronald Reagan spent 335 days at or en route to his Santa Barbara, California, ranch during his eight years in office. Of recent presidents, Jimmy Carter took the least days off -- only 79 days, which he usually spent at his home in Georgia. That's less than three weeks a year, which is closer to the average American's paid time off of 13 days per year.

What about Clinton? As of December 1999, President Bill Clinton had spent only 152 days on holiday during his two terms, according to CBS News. A former staffer noted Clinton was such a workaholic that "it almost killed Clinton to take one-week vacations during August." In 2000, Clinton cut his summer vacation short to just three days, so he and his wife could concentrate on her Senate race and fundraising for Democrats. While we couldn't find the exact tally for Clinton's last year in office, it's reasonable to expect he didn't increase his vacation rate. And in barely three years in office, George W. Bush has already taken more vacation than Clinton did in seven years.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=George_W._Bush:_The_War_President_is_Missing_in_Action

Joshua Micah Marshall, in his April 9, 2004, Talking Points Memo, points to a "Washington Post story on the degenerating situation in Iraq ...


"This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.

[Forge]

35. This is really an excellent point

I'd like to see this comparison up on the homepage.

[diabhal]

26. Why didn't Edwards rebutt this then?

How come he just let that slide? And how come he didn't immediately retort to Cheney's assertion that last night was the first time they had met? All it would have taken was a "Why Mr Vice President I had a 2 hour lunch with you" for Cheney to look like a complete lying fool.

[Gabi Hayes]

27. THANK you....was wondering when somebody would bring that up

and what about his miserable response to the lawsuit thing?

Halliburton filed about 150 lawsuits when Cheney was CEO, including BS SMALL CLAIMS COURT ones for as little as a THOUSAND BUCKS!

and his defense of his own occupation was equally disturbing: it's INSURANCE companies that are responsible for the outrageous premiums the beloved ObGyns, etal are paying. damages in malpractice cases have GONE DOWN in the last few years, and represent about two percent of health care costs

why didn't he have that info at his fingertips?

I just read a letter in the Chicago Tribune that states the company in Illinois that handles malpractice premiums for most doctors here made MORE profit last year than in the previous six or seven years COMBINED!!!!

[ohioan]

30. Maybe because he felt he'd get more mileage out of showing how

Cheney voted when he was in Congress - this was one of the few opportunities to do this - and also knew that this was something that the Kerry people would get the truth out quickly and make Cheney look like the liar he is. This may have been more effective than getting into a spitting match with Cheney about whether they had met before. This way, the public knows both about Cheney's right wing extremist record in Congress AND that he lied about Edwards' record.

[marlakay]

47. He didn't let anything slide, he LOCKED THE LIE IN

I heard on the radio AAR that it is called Locking a Lie in to let someone completely say a lie and let it stand. It is something a good lawyer would do. If he gave Cheney a chance to take it back and he did he wouldn't have been able to call him on it. Now, he can say you lied!!!

[donheld]

28. thank you for finding this

i figured Crashcart was lying, like he was about everything else, but i didn't have time to research it.:toast:

[LawDem]

29. It goes with the territory of running for president

Anytime a Senator runs for president he'll/she'll have a lousy attendance record. It goes with the territory. The best you can hope for is that he'll/she'll try to make the close votes on important issues. Cheney knows this.

I'll happily wager any amount of money that the governor's office in Texas was vacant a huge percentage of the time in 1999 and 2000.

[LiberalFighter]

62. Just 1999 and 2000

Would think gw* was vacant most of his life.

[Andromeda]

33. I really appreciate this information...

I've been so ticked off since Cheney smacked Edwards with the "Mr. Gone" label. It's not surprising that Cheney lied since just about everything he had to say had no basis in fact.

Thanks for your work in compiling this. I didn't feel very good today and didn't have the physical energy to do any research.

[SoCalDemocrat]

36. He should of used it to rebut "I've never seen you before"

1999 Cast 371 out of 374 votes for a 99.2% voting record
2000 Cast 298 out of 298 votes for a 100% voting record
2001 Cast 377 out of 380 votes for a 99.2% voting record
2002 Cast 253 out of 253 votes for a 100% voting record

Given the above record, if Cheney never saw Edwards before it would mean Dick was either asleep the whole time, or he never showed up for work himself.

[George_S]

38. CNN 'confirmed" his GONE record

What's up with that then?

[Tesibria]

39. CAREFUL!!!

First -- of COURSE he (and Kerry) have missed votes while on the campaign trail. In 2000, Lieberman and McCain were the top vote-missers.

But -- the *facts* -- per Voter information Services Report on Missed Votes:
(http://www.vis.org/toolbox/private/mvrreport.aspx, subscription required)

(Ranked by MOST votes missed; updated quarterly)

2004 Senate
Total Votes: 124
Kerry - #1 - Missed 108
Edwards - #2 - Missed 62

2003 Senate
Total Votes: 359
Kerry - #1 - Missed 218
Edwards - #3 - Missed 128

2002 Senate
Total Votes: 188
Kerry - #25* - Missed 8 (tied w/ Richard Shelby)
Edwards - #77* -- Missed NONE (25 members tied)

2001 Senate
Total Votes: 201
Kerry - # 19* - Missed 7 (5 members tied)
Edwards - # 51* -- Missed 2 (14 members tied)

2000 Senate
Total Votes: 242
Kerry - #16* - Missed 13 (4 members tied)
Edwards - #78* -- Missed NONE (14 members tied)

1999 Senate
Total Votes: 309
Kerry - #31* -- Missed 5 (5 members)
Edwards - #44* -- Missed 3 (9 members)

So my totals for Edwards are

Year TV- MV- V-- % of Votes
2004 124 062 062 50%
2003 359 128 231 64%
2002 188 000 188 100%
2001 301 002 299 99%
2000 242 000 242 100%
1999 309 003 306 99%

1523 195 1328 87.20%

(Maybe this is why i'm a lawyer and not a mathemetician??)

[factcheck]

40. A point?

I think the point is that no sitting senator, or other office holder, should neglect their duties in their current office while campaigning for a higher office.

Personally, I think this is a valid point. I believe that ANYONE should either have to continue in their current duties while campaigning or, if they cannot, resign from their current office so they are not short-changing the people who put them in that office in the first place.

Just my opinion.

[ohioan]

41. There's more to being a Senator than voting . . .

Missing votes does not mean a Senator is neglecting his duties.

A number of these votes are on measures that have little or no impact. Plus, most, if not all, of the missed votes were in cases in which Edwards' vote would have made no difference at all in the outcome. Edwards and Kerry and the other candidates always made sure to make votes when their votes would have mattered, even if it meant cancelling campaign events.

And don't forget that many times, Republicans would schedule votes at the last minute for the express purpose of forcing the Democratic candidates to either completely upend their campaign schedule to rush back to Washington or to miss a vote so they could be later accused of shirking their duties.

[Chiyo-chichi]

51. Exactly right.

Yeah.

[nyhuskyfan]

42. That's an idealistic view

I would agree in principle, but the reality of the system dictates that sacrifices need to be made. If you resign from your position, you're abandoning your office and will be called selfish on the campaign trail ("he quit on the people of North Carolina, so how can we trust him?"). If you stay in office and completely ignore your duties, your abandoning your constituents. So you have to find the middle ground. If you miss certain procedural votes (the ones that pass unanimously or close to it), but make a point of getting back to vote when it's important, I think that's fair.

Another ideal is that a person should actually achieve something in his lifetime before serving as the United States president, but that ideal got chucked out the window in 2000.

[kimchi]

50. Maybe you should tell Bush your opinion.

He's the one who uses his "speeches" to campaign, and has more vacation time than any "President".

[TheDonkey]

43. Might have just used the 2004, or 2003 figure

where he was 'gone' running for President. If elected he could help the people of NC, and America far greater than casting bills on the hill, especially if it doesn't matter if he voted or didn't.

[ohioan]

48. Cheney was referring to the last 2 years, but he insinuated this applied

to Edwards' entire term.

Typical.

[eablair3]

53. "Senator Gone"

Cheney said that his hometown or home state newspapers were referring to Edwards as "Senator Gone"

I tried searching and could not find any newspapers that used that term. I guess I could have missed it. I did find where right wing FrontPage (D Horowitz?) said the same thing Cheney said.

But, I'd like to see the context or the articles where the "Senator Gone" term was used. Was it used in a Letter to the Editor? Or, an editorial by a right wing corporate newspaper editor that supports Repugs?

How and in what context was it used, if it was?

Anyone know of any links to the actual articles?

[ROH]

54. "Senator Gone?" ... Well, not exactly

Here's a link:
http://www.thepilot.com/opinion/100604PilotEditorial2.html

==========================================================

‘Senator Gone’?

It’s not every day that a non-daily paper in a small town gets mentioned in a nationally televised debate in prime time. But it happened to The Pilot Tuesday night.

“His hometown newspaper has taken to calling him ‘Senator Gone,’” Vice President Richard Cheney said of his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Edwards.

Well, not exactly.

The Pilot hasn’t “taken to calling him” anything. In fact, the vice president’s obscure reference sent us scrambling to our library. And sure enough, we did publish an editorial 15 months ago, on June 25, 2003, headlined, “Edwards Should Do His Day Job.” In it, we noted that Sen. Jesse Helms used to be called “Senator No.” And we added: “Four and a half years into his first term, John Edwards is becoming known as Senator Gone.”

The reference was to Edwards’ frequent absences from the Senate floor as he traveled here and there (mostly there) pursuing his presidential ambitions.

But we also wrote: “Members of the senator’s staff point out that Edwards’ attendance record this year has been better than the three other Democratic senators who are campaigning for president — Joe Lieberman, Richard Gephardt and Bob Graham. And the aides also say none of the votes Edwards missed was close, so his presence on the floor would not have changed the outcome.”

Thanks for the plug, Mr. Vice President. We’re proud to count you among our many readers.

[ROH]

55. "I don't think it was at all accurate ..." says the author

Also, see the main index:
http://www.thepilot.com

and:
http://www.thepilot.com/news/100604Debate.html
http://www.thepilot.com/weblinks/100404Reaction.html

====================================================

Editor Steve Bouser says he wrote the editorial.

"It's an unfortunate fact of political life," he said. "If you're in Congress and you run for president, you are going to miss lots of important business. It is a fact of life. We were just giving him a gentle nudge to remind him that some folks back home were asking whether he was neglecting Senate business while campaigning around the country."

Bouser pointed out that The Pilot never itself called Edwards "Senator Gone." Specifically, the editorial said the senator "is becoming known as 'Senator Gone'"

"I don't think it was at all accurate to say we have 'taken to calling' the senator anything," Bouser said. "Remember, this was a one-time reference in an editorial that appeared 15 months ago."

[ROH]

56. "Partisan Crowd Cheers Hometown Boy" ... the same newspaper

Another specific link:
http://www.thepilot.com/news/100604Partisan.html

================================================

Cries of “Get him, John” and “Damn, he’s good!” went up from a small crowd that gathered in the old Robbins mill to watch Tuesday’s debate between Sen. John Edwards and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Those comments came after Edwards, the Democratic nominee, attacked Cheney on the Iraq war and health-care reform and accused the administration of pandering to big business, including Cheney’s former company, Halliburton.

================================================

... see link for full details

[number6]

60. I knew Cheney was telling another lie ....

:mad: