Barrett Gone AWOL
December 18th, 2009 in Congress, Gresham Barrett, South Carolina ~ (2) Comments
The Washington Post did a tally of all the votes in the U.S. House of Representatives to see how many actually voted.
Rep. Gresham Barrett (R, SC-3), in spite of his $174k annual salary, missed 337 out of 971 votes in 2009–about 34.7%. Votes Barrett missed include the vote to reprimand Rep. Joe Wilson for his “You lie!” outburst and a key budget appropriations vote on 12/10 which contained abortion funding.
Shenanigans like this earned another legislator, Sen. John Edwards of NC, the nickname “Senator Gone.”
Barrett’s excuse? “Serving in Congress while running for governor is a balancing act, and he hopes most people will understand.” In contrast, Tennessee Rep. Zach Wamp (who is running for governor of Tennessee) only missed 8.1% of Congressional votes.
Now, what do you call a soldier who doesn’t show up to battle?
I'd call him unfit to wear the uniform, traitor, or possibly even coward.
[...] very controversial townhalls.) Or is he too busy campaigning? I dare say the latter, since he also missed 337 out of 971 house votes in 2009 (34.7%). I’m not paying him $174k/yr to miss one third of the votes. I know [...]