Burton sorry about missing votes for golf

[danarhea]

Dan Burton (R-18th Hole) has apologized for missing a total of 19 Congressional votes in January so he could play golf. I don't know about anyone else, but if I took even one day off to play golf, I would be fired, and rightly so. The people of Burton's district need to hold him accountable for putting away on the taxpayers' money.

Article is here.

 

[jujuman13]

If he gets re-elected then one can state that his constituents will truly get the representative and type of representation they deserve.
Sounds to me as though he should decide whether he wishes to be a person who, while admitting his mistakes, would wish to not learn from those mistakes.
Naturally he should decide whether he wishes to be a wanna be golfer or remain a lieing useless politician.

 

[Hatuey]

Impossible. Politicians ditching their duties to this country to do what they want to do at the expense of your everyday tax payer's money? Impossible, but then again.

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

The job doesn't have regular hours. When you're in the office, you work a Hell of a lot more than forty a week-- and when you're at home, you're still on the job.

If those nineteen votes were on bills he had a role in, or on issues that he had campaigned on, then I'd agree he was being lax. But I don't want a Congressman who votes on every single bill put in front of him-- because we all know that there is no possible way that he's had time to read all of the bills and research all of the implications.

 

[LaMidRighter]

The job doesn't have regular hours. When you're in the office, you work a Hell of a lot more than forty a week-- and when you're at home, you're still on the job.

If those nineteen votes were on bills he had a role in, or on issues that he had campaigned on, then I'd agree he was being lax. But I don't want a Congressman who votes on every single bill put in front of him-- because we all know that there is no possible way that he's had time to read all of the bills and research all of the implications.

I'd like to know the votes he skipped out on and the reasons as well. If they were pressing issues and necessary then he is a lazy representative, if the bills were special interest items of little signifigance it would be understandable if he skipped.
I fully agree that I'd rather a politician who is knowledgable about the votes consequences cast a yea or nea. I just hope that he paid for the round himself and didn't use taxpayer/lobbyist money to do it, that would just be obscene.(although it wouldn't surprise me)

 

[TheNextEra]

But I don't want a Congressman who votes on every single bill put in front of him-- because we all know that there is no possible way that he's had time to read all of the bills and research all of the implications.

Yeah better for him to take some time off and Golf rather than Vote. :roll:

Another example of Apathy.

 

[Hatuey]

The job doesn't have regular hours. When you're in the office, you work a Hell of a lot more than forty a week-- and when you're at home, you're still on the job.

If those nineteen votes were on bills he had a role in, or on issues that he had campaigned on, then I'd agree he was being lax. But I don't want a Congressman who votes on every single bill put in front of him-- because we all know that there is no possible way that he's had time to read all of the bills and research all of the implications.

I dont know about you but if I missed a meeting of any kind at work just so I could play golf I'd be in alot of ****.

 

[Cold Dirt]

Dan Burton (R-18th Hole) has apologized for missing a total of 19 Congressional votes in January so he could play golf. I don't know about anyone else, but if I took even one day off to play golf, I would be fired, and rightly so. The people of Burton's district need to hold him accountable for putting away on the taxpayers' money.

Article is here.

Here we have the fake conservative attacking a fellow conservative yet not a word how Kerry missed vote after vote after vote while running for President in 04.......how about it fake conservative.....why dont you ever post anything that doesnt try and make a fellow conservative look bad?

because you are a fraud and a liar.........

 

[The Mark]

I dont know about you but if I missed a meeting of any kind at work just so I could play golf I'd be in alot of ****.

It all depends on what those bills were for. I believe that in some cases politicians purposely don't vote on a bill as a political maneuver.

And I agree with Korimyr the Rat that it would be much better for a politician to miss voting on a bill than vote on it without detailed knowledge of it's contents.....and what they mean for his constituents.

However, it would also be a much better idea if a politician was required to have such detailed knowledge of all bills and vote on them using such knowledge. I am not sure if this is physically possible for a politician to do, as I am unaware as to the number of bills they put to a vote each session. Who knows, flooding the list with junk bills might be another political tactic.

 

[danarhea]

Yeah better for him to take some time off and Golf rather than Vote. :roll:

Another example of Apathy.

Kind of like a lot of the American people. That is how we ended up with Bush in the first place. :mrgreen:

 

[reaganburch]

Impossible. Politicians ditching their duties to this country to do what they want to do at the expense of your everyday tax payer's money? Impossible, but then again.

It's amazing what Photoshop can do, huh? Yawn....

You mean kind of like the "non-binding" resolution... something they want to do that doesn't mean anything at the expense of our tax money?

 

[RightinNYC]

I dont know about you but if I missed a meeting of any kind at work just so I could play golf I'd be in alot of ****.

I don't know about anyone else, but if I took even one day off to play golf, I would be fired, and rightly so.

And thats why you and he have different types of jobs.

Does your work make you release to the public every bit of your finances?
Does your work require you to be the subject of public scruitiny and "on the job" 24/7?
Do you have to raise millions of dollars each year just to have the opportunity to stand up and be attacked from all sides for months in the hope that you will not soon become unemployed?

 

[talloulou]

The job doesn't have regular hours. When you're in the office, you work a Hell of a lot more than forty a week-- and when you're at home, you're still on the job.

If those nineteen votes were on bills he had a role in, or on issues that he had campaigned on, then I'd agree he was being lax. But I don't want a Congressman who votes on every single bill put in front of him-- because we all know that there is no possible way that he's had time to read all of the bills and research all of the implications.

Normally I'd agree with you. In other words if the guy worked hard but occasionally missed out on voting on certain dates where the issue up for vote wasn't important to him or his state then it's no big deal.

However would he did was schedule a TOURNAMENT! He played in a TOURNAMENT that kept him out of office and out of town for a set time and it doesn't seem to be the same as cutting out early after a few long days of work to get a break so much as placing a TOURNAMENT above the job you were hired to do. It seems as if he would've missed those votes whether they were important or not as he was busy participating in a gulf tournament.

He himself claims "It was a mistake." If he asserts that he showed lack of judgement then I take his word on it. No reason to make excuses for someone who knows they did wrong.

The Star's review of House votes for the past decade shows the Indianapolis Republican has been absent every year votes coincided with the tournament: 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2001. This year in January, he missed a total of 20 out of 73 votes.

 

[danarhea]

Normally I'd agree with you. In other words if the guy worked hard but occasionally missed out on voting on certain dates where the issue up for vote wasn't important to him or his state then it's no big deal.

However would he did was schedule a TOURNAMENT! He played in a TOURNAMENT that kept him out of office and out of town for a set time and it doesn't seem to be the same as cutting out early after a few long days of work to get a break so much as placing a TOURNAMENT above the job you were hired to do. It seems as if he would've missed those votes whether they were important or not as he was busy participating in a gulf tournament.

He himself claims "It was a mistake." If he asserts that he showed lack of judgement then I take his word on it. No reason to make excuses for someone who knows they did wrong.

Well, it seems that the Burton apologists have lowered expectations of how Congress should act. However, if our Congressmen were officers in a corporation, the Board of Directors would fire the lot of them. We the People are supposed to be the Board of Directors of this nation, and it is time we started acting like it. Congress, the President, and all the rest of the clowns, don't own us - We own them.

 

[TheNextEra]

And thats why you and he have different types of jobs.

Does your work make you release to the public every bit of your finances?
Does your work require you to be the subject of public scruitiny and "on the job" 24/7?
Do you have to raise millions of dollars each year just to have the opportunity to stand up and be attacked from all sides for months in the hope that you will not soon become unemployed?

No one forces him to have that job. He should do it or leave, plain and simple. Quit making excuses.

 

[Hatuey]

And thats why you and he have different types of jobs.

Does your work make you release to the public every bit of your finances?
Does your work require you to be the subject of public scruitiny and "on the job" 24/7?
Do you have to raise millions of dollars each year just to have the opportunity to stand up and be attacked from all sides for months in the hope that you will not soon become unemployed?

Are you seriously trying to make an excuse for somebody who instead of doing their job is out playing golf? Give me a ****ing break. I dont care where you work. If you're not doing your job because you'd rather be playing golf. You should be fired. Golf is not a valid reason to ditch your responsabilities. End of story.

 

[RightinNYC]

No one forces him to have that job. He should do it or leave, plain and simple. Quit making excuses.

Then its up to the people of his district to vote him out if they don't think he's doing a good job. None of your business.

 

[RightinNYC]

Are you seriously trying to make an excuse for somebody who instead of doing their job is out playing golf? Give me a ****ing break. I dont care where you work. If you're not doing your job because you'd rather be playing golf. You should be fired. Golf is not a valid reason to ditch your responsabilities. End of story.

Shame that the Constitution doesn't provide for the firing of Congressmen. If, as the above article states, his constituents have continued to vote him back into office despite the fact that he's always been known as someone to miss many votes, then its their prerogative. See the above post.

 

[TheNextEra]

Shame that the Constitution doesn't provide for the firing of Congressmen. If, as the above article states, his constituents have continued to vote him back into office despite the fact that he's always been known as someone to miss many votes, then its their prerogative. See the above post.

Well then, please remember that when your buddies here complain about Kerry's voting record OK?

 

[RightinNYC]

Well then, please remember that when your buddies here complain about Kerry's voting record OK?

How does one preclude the other?

If this was my Congressman, I'd be pissed about the fact that he had missed so many votes. I would see that as a mark against him, and if he ran for office again, I'd look to see if someone else was a better choice. If not, I'd vote for him anyways.

With Kerry, the fact that he missed so many votes was an equally noteworthy consideration. By virtue of the fact that he ran for president, not congress, it would be relevant to 300,000,000 people, not just 650,000.

 

[danarhea]

Then its up to the people of his district to vote him out if they don't think he's doing a good job. None of your business.

I agree with you on that, but that doesn't' say much for the voters of his district, does it?

 

[RightinNYC]

I agree with you on that, but that doesn't' say much for the voters of his district, does it?

If he missed these few votes that were completely inconsequential and would not have turned out differently if he had been there, but was a strong advocate for the interests of his district, why would it matter?

I'd vote for someone who missed 90% of non-tiebreaker votes, so long as they worked for my interests while they were there and did a good job representing the district.

 

[TheNextEra]

By virtue of the fact that he ran for president, not congress, it would be relevant to 300,000,000 people, not just 650,000.

Sorry, but no, it is none of your concern unless he is YOUR senator. If he became president, that would be another story. So from now on do stop your buddies from complaining about his record. It's none of their business while he is a senator.

 

[hipsterdufus]

It's those dam n Dems making the GOP work 5 days a week. :roll:

 

[RightinNYC]

Sorry, but no, it is none of your concern unless he is YOUR senator. If he became president, that would be another story. So from now on do stop your buddies from complaining about his record. It's none of their business while he is a senator.

What on earth are you talking about? If he had been running for Senator of MA, his record is not my business because i have no say in the matter. If he's running for president, it IS my business because I DO have the right to vote for/against him. So it is quite relevant.