Reps. Bachmann & Paul: Playing Hooky From Congressional Duties
Two thoroughly unelectable* candidates are missing a lot of votes to posture and strut before tea party crowds.
Since announcing their respective presidential bids, GOP Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Ron Paul (Texas) have had a truancy problem in the House, where they still represent about 600,000 people each.
But it’s Bachmann who might have some explaining to do to her constituents in Minnesota’s 6th district; she has voted only 54 percent of the time since announcing her presidential bid June 13 — missing 150 votes and every vote during the month of September, according to data compiled by Congressional Quarterly.
It is common for presidential candidates who also serve in Congress to miss a lot of votes. President Barack Obama missed more than 40 percent of Senate votes during a similar point in his campaign, for example.
Bachmann is notable particularly because she has missed significantly more House votes than Paul, another second-tier presidential candidate with a similarly small but enthusiastic base of supporters.
*They are obviously electable for state or local office, but they will always trip themselves once they move beyond the bottom step of the national stage — it comes from trying to skip steps on the way up while toting tons of crazy baggage. The clown shoes don’t help much either.
