GET BACK TO WORK!!!

A fun little story from the paper in and about Congress, The Hill. It seems an unabashedly conservative group, the American Conservative Union, has filed a lawsuit to force the House of Representatives Clerk to enforce a 150 year old rule that requires pay to be withheld from any member of Congress for the days absent not for medical reasons. The target of the lawsuit is House minority leader Dick Gephardt, who has missed 506 votes (over 90%) this year. If enforced, this would mean Dicky would lose about $155,000.00. The ACU also plans to target John Kerry, the Massachusetts Republican, who, by the way, served in Vietnam, for missing 237 votes in the Senate, nearly 60%.

Now, the rules also state that the rule is no longer practical. But, it does show the absolute apathy Gephardt has for his constituents. Can you imagine missing nine out of every ten days at work and still just collecting a paycheck, unscathed? The ACU admit it’s just trying to hurt Gephardt, but why? Dean-O is the frontrunner, why not go after him?

Because Gephardt is a much better candidate for President and much harder to beat. Dick has some very leftist, pinko ideas, but he would be much stronger as a candidate for President because he is a much saner person. He is the kind of person people would feel they could vote for. So, The ACU attacked, pointing out his weaknesses. Very pragmatic.

It’s also fun to see the right use the judiciary to hurt the left, since we’ve been on the receiving side for so long.