Gephardt skips 85% of House votes

[sfecap]

Gephardt skips 85% of House votes

By Sam Dealey and Sarita Chourey

Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) has missed 162 votes in the House this year — 85 percent of the total — prompting Republicans to charge that he has abandoned his congressional duties in his pursuit of the presidency.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has seized on the absenteeism to point out that several of Gephardt’s missed votes have been on legislative and policy matters that are centerpieces to his campaign.

In his closing statement at the South Carolina debate earlier this month, for example, Gephardt listed the creation of “an Apollo II program to make us independent of foreign oil in 10 years” as one of his top legislative priorities.

Gephardt has missed every vote on energy-related issues this session. House records show Gephardt also missed votes on other issues that are frequent themes in his presidential candidacy, including welfare reform, human cloning, healthcare, homeland security, education and tax cuts.

Commenting in the South Carolina debate that “people don’t vote,” Gephardt rued the “cynicism” about politics that “abounds” among voters.

(more)

http://www.hillnews.com/news/052003/gephardt.aspx

[LynneSin]

1. This doesn't look good for Gephardt

with the the other house guy - Dennis Kucinich.

Seriously, if Dennis can make it to 100% of his votes you'd think Gephardt would make it to more than 15%, especially when he missed out on that Head Start vote that was narrowly defeated by one vote (his vote would have given the dems the minorty.

And Kucinich is also starting to move up in the polls which shows that you can manage to do you job AND campaign for president at the same time!

[dfong63]

2. i can imagine no possible excuse for that

what could Gephardt have been thinking?

[SyracuseDemocrat]

25. Kucinich misses no votes

because he doesn't campaign as much as Gephardt. Also, we all know that Kucinich won't be nominated under any circumstances. He's just too far left. Gephardt knows that he still has a very good shot if he takes Iowa, so that is why he is missing votes. Let's keep things in perspective.

[AnAmerican]

27. uh huh....sure

:eyes:

[sfecap]

31. Believe it. Kucinich has missed no votes.

Check the record. Nobody can fault DK's recird on this. You may not like how he votes, but he damn sure shows up and votes.

His constituents are getting their money's worth.

[diamondsoul]

33. Um, I think the other poster

was responding to the usual drivel about Kucinich not having a chance to be nominated, and that being why he "doesn't campaign as much".

The cited article claims Kucinich has missed one roll-call vote, any idea what they're talking about? I understood him to have a perfect record in at least the last session if not longer.

[CoffeePlease1947]

3. I can think of only one thing worse

That he give his seat up and have a Republican take it that votes the way Bush tells him to.

Mike

[LynneSin]

4. I don't have a problem with Gephardt

I'd just wish he'd show up for some of those votes.

[diamondsoul]

5. You SHOULD have a problem with him.

EVERYONE should have a problem with him purely because of it.

Here's my take on missing votes like that whether House or Senate- It tells me your elected positions doesn't mean squat if you can get a bigger one. Your priorities are completely screwed up already, so why would I cast my vote for someone who doesn't do what I elect him to do anywaY?

[Ripley]

6. Exactly.

The crapo governor Riley here in Alabama had a similar record in Congress (50% absenteeism) but he still won!!!

This should bother everyone, of all political persuasians, if he doesn't do half of his work why would you support him into another office?????

[NewJerseyDem]

7. What if.....

when they get into the white house they start their campaign for pope or UN secretary-general? We would probably never see them. Then who would run the country?

[VermontDem2004]

9. Speaker of the House

if the VP goes with Gephardt.

[ButterflyBlood]

54. and here's what's scary

Speakers are term limited to 3 terms as Speaker. Hastert will have to step down in 2006. Tom DeLay is in line to be his successor, and thus third in line to the White House :scared:

Unless of course the Repukes ditch DeLay for another Hastert-esque empty suit. If you think Gingrich was polarizing, you ain't seen nothing until you see Speaker DeLay.

[CoffeePlease1947]

56. They could change the 3 term rule

Why would Republicans turn it down? And would the Democrats rather have Dennis or Delay as Speaker?

Mike

[NewJerseyDem]

67. They changed the rule

Speakers were term limited by the republicans to only 8 years as speaker however they ended that at the beginning of this year and now Hastert can serve as long as he wants, assuming republicans are in the majority. Also, DeLay is unlikely to ever become Speaker. He isn't the type of person that can do that job and I think that even he realizes that. Also, I don't think DeLay is the most popular republican and there would be some stiff opposition by a lot of people like Joel Hefley, Jim Saxton and Christopher Shays who didn't get chairmanships because of DeLay and now hate him. Roy Blunt or David Dreier probably have better chances of becoming Speaker.

[bread_and_roses]

69. Great signature!

I hadn't seen that quote before.

[VermontDem2004]

8. DUers may disagree with me

but I have a problem with someone who misses 85% of the house votes, the people of his district elected him and he has a duty of serving his people by showing up for house votes! They should of elected a teddy bear to fill in, the only thing worse then this is having a repuke fill his seat that votes 100% of the time with repukes.

[JeniB]

11. He has an agreement with Nancy Pelosi.

If he's needed for a vote, he'll be there. If his vote won't make a difference one way or the other, it doesn't matter if he's there or not. With a Republican controlled house they know what they can and cannot do. He's been there a long time, he knows his job and he also knows her job. Running for President is not easy. Who should be out there getting these union endorsements for him, his campaign manager? The president even gives up job time to campaign. I don't mean just Bush, every President does. I seriously doubt that Kucinich is there for 100% of the votes. Why do you people ALWAYS assume that you know more about how this should be done than the candidates? He's there when he needs to be. It's a matter of knowing what you're doing enough to make these decisions. This comes up constantly and is always explained again and again. Give it a rest!!!

[dsc]

12. If you had bothered to read the article

it states, in plain English, that Kucinich missed one vote. It is one of the last paragraphs I believe. That would be 1 vote out of well over a hundred which is a 99% record. He had a perfect record for quite some time.

[Duder]

13. Gephardt's absence hurt Head Start

'U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt of St. Louis says he's a big supporter of the Head Start education program for low-income, preschool children.

He has a lousy way of showing it.

Only hours before Congress voted 217-216 on a disastrous change to Head Start, Gephardt left Washington to raise cash in South Carolina for his presidential campaign.'

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/news/opinion/6427384.htm

[MercutioATC]

15. To be fair to Gephardt, the 217-216 number was engineered.

Had he been there, the vote would have been 218-216 (one of the Repubs who voted with the Dems would have changed his/her vote). I'm in total disagreement with him for missing so many votes, but I DO believe that the Repubs know exactly how many votes they can count on and are keeping things close just for "fun".

[Duder]

16. True, but...

'His defenders said that Republican House leaders would have forced one of their 12 members who voted against the bill to switch sides if Gephardt had stayed in town.

But if one of them had switched to support the bill, he or she would have had to defend that decision to voters back home who want to protect Head Start.'

[MercutioATC]

47. Don't get me wrong, I disagree with missing 85% of the votes...

It's unconsionable...especially when it's the job you're paid to do. I just wanted to point out that this "we lost by ONE vote because of Gephardt" stuff is silly. Be pissed he's missing votes, but the other side of the aisle has the votes regardless of whether he's there or not.

[Hippo_Tron]

48. Yeah, rarely are house votes actually "close"

Plus it actually would be fun if you had a house majority to see how close you could get it. And wouldn't ya know it while House Democrats are actually trying to help the country Tom DeLay is just screwing around with the votes to intimidate us. Gotta hand it to the guy he may be an asshole but he sures now how to have fun :p

[MercutioATC]

50. I detect sarcasm in your post ...

You're saying that the Repubs (or whomever the majority party is at the time) don't 1) know which of their members are voting on the other side and 2) have the ability to pull the ones they need back to the party line to win a vote?

And yes, I DO think that they sometimes like to make it appear as if a vote was closer than it really was, for a variety of reasons.

Again, this is not a defense of a Congressman missing a LOT of votes. I just think it's silly to blame 1 Congressman for "losing" a vote. The vast majority of the time, the Repubs have it covered.

[UnapologeticLiberal]

74. You are probably right

When the GOP needs votes, they usually have them no matter what. But maybe not this time...if that had been the case, they would not have needed to wheel in a congressman who had been in a car accident that weekend...they could have just pressured one of the Republicans they had on hand.

[arcos]

26. You can have your doubts...

but the record says otherwise. Kucinich has been present for nearly 100% of the votes.

[UnapologeticLiberal]

62. But what about the Head Start vote?

I accept that he is not needed most of the time and if he is not needed it does not matter if he is there. But the GOP overhaul of Head Start passed by one vote a few weeks ago, and Gephardt was out campaigning.

[dsc]

10. 85% is an awful lot of missed votes

by any reasonable standard. I can't say what he is thinking but he should be thinking about missing fewer votes.

[JeniB]

17. Just to show you I can be totally fair

I'm going to say that even though he knows what he's doing 85% is a lot. Mostly because Mr. & Mrs. America at home don't necessarily know that he is totally aware of who's going to win the votes. I'm going to ask him about it Sunday. One thing I know is that he never squirms out of answering the tough questions.

[dsc]

19. Please do

because this does look bad. People can understand some missed votes. But this looks appalling. I can see the ads now and they aren't pretty. I think Kucinich went too far the other way but there has to be a happy medium here.

[JeniB]

66. OK, I asked!

He says he has spoken to a ton of his constituents and they are fine with it. They realize he is there when he needs to be and they really want him to win. They know he can't be a contender if he's not out there campaigning. He confirmed that Pelosi is keeping him appraised of everything and she lets him know if he can make a difference. She has endorsed him so she has reason to keep him informed. Unfortunately, the Repubs have so much sewn up that the Dems have a very small voice right now but that will all change if we get a Dem president so this is another road in defense of our party.

[dsc]

70. I am glad they are OK with it

though a poll administered by him is hardly dispositive in that regard. But frankly he doesn't only work for them. He works for all of us. I admit that the House has considerably more votes and voting days than the Senate does but House members still routinely are able to travel home while missing way fewer votes than he has. If his percentage were more in line with Lieberman's or Kerry's I wouldn't be so upset but 85% is very hard to swallow.

[bread_and_roses]

71. But did you ask specifically

about the Head Start vote? I am not a Dem, but I work on Dem campaigns and will be working on the Pres campaign locally. Head Start is REAL important to the people I work to mobilize and GOTV. Even if his presence had forced a Repub to change his vote, that could be important. And surely important for his vote on this to be on record? I keep looking for a reason to support him, especially when I forget I am no longer a Dem and won't be voting in the Primary (though I'll be working on that too for GOTV at least)...but I really can't summon much enthusiasm. And remember, most people don't know about any of the "inner" workings...they will see a loss by one vote, and that he wasn't there.

[JeniB]

72. Because I get to see him often, I can see his passion for all that

is going on. I realize that it's hard if you don't see him in person. He really cares about all of these issues. He cares about real people and is not phony at all about it. He's giving up being there because he knows if he lets up for one minute, Dean will be so far ahead. He hates not being there and he really does keep in touch with Pelosi. Believe me, if his vote will matter, he'll be there. He knows he has to answer this question a lot, but he would rather do that than just let it all slip away. He IS working for the party and he believes getting the nomination is the best thing he can do. He did give up the leadership position to run. He knew that he couldn't do that and run too. Give him a little credit for knowing what he's doing. I don't expect Deanites to understand. They have no missed votes to count and that makes those who do an easy target.
If you want to like him, then look at his past voting records. Decide on the man from that, not from this year when being out in the public and running his campaign is so important.

[dsc]

73. One of the chief reasons we have no missed votes to count

is that our candidate didn't run for governor in 2002 due to his running for President. This isn't just some Deanite issue. While I will vote for the man if he wins the nomination I will be hard pressed to defend this conduct. He isn't running for reelection in 2004. Presumedly his district is heavily Democratic and thus had he resigned his replacement would be a Democrat. So he isn't doing this to save the seat. He isn't doing this to save his seniority. He is missing 17 out of every 20 votes. I can't in good faith defend that conduct.

[ErasureAcer]

14. In contrast, Kucinich hasn't missed one...

who is a more responsible leader? Kucinich all the way!

Let's make him president in 2004

www.kucinich.us

[renie408]

21. I swear, I mean this sincerely...

While I think that Kucinich would be a shoe in if we were voting for sainthood, I don't think he stands a snowball's chance in hell of being elected President. I think that most people will not think this is the time to elect a pacifist (whether it is or not) and that is what he looks like. I am NOT arguing with anything he says or does. You just can't, the man is just frigging wonderful. But I think he looks more like VP material than P material.

I dunno, maybe he lacks a certain force of presence. I know that is a stupid reason for not electing somebody, but it is just reality.

[ErasureAcer]

23. You obviously haven't seen him speak live at an event...

in which you were in attendance...because at the rally/speech I was at last weekend he had the crowd going mad crazy with noise over what he was saying.

And perception is reality...your perception is definitely different than mine and thousands of others across the nation...your perception isn't the end all on a candidate.

Kucinich WILL be the next president of the USA...just you watch.

[diamondsoul]

34. Oh, he's got some force all right!

That was one of the first things that struck me about him. I watched him at a Democratic forum on childrens welfare. He came out powerfully in support of decent education for everyone, an end to violence both at home and internationally, and healthcare for all. The coolest thing about it was that he was the most passionate man on that stage about all those things. The others were far less forceful then, and probably because they were thinking the caucus wasn't a major event for their Presidential campaigns. Unfortunately for them it was a pivotal caucus for me as a voter.

I had seen Kucinich and had the same thought most people have at first sight "Cripes, he looks like an ELF!". I had the same thought about his appearance so many do, "He'll never be elected because he doen't look Presidential.", and that made me sad. Then I listened to him. PPPPPFFFFT! No presence, and not Presidential, my FOOT! That man has a presence and an attitude that are positively contagious!

And this stuff about his looks gets me in a big way for one reason.....have you all taken a good hard look at Chimpy lately??

One other thing about Kucinich- He speaks a language all of our international contacts will gravitate to. The language of peaceful relations world-wide. I think most Americans don't comprehend how bad it is in other countries. We're all so focused on this one major event to hit our home that we've forgotten about London, Israel, Dublin, Japan, all these places which have regular terrorist attacks happening to them. These people are sick of being scared. Meanwhile our current pResident plays it up here, HERE of all places! I loved England, so much so I'd love to go back there. At the same time I've read about some of the horrors they've had to deal with. Granted the scale isn't as large generally as the attacks on the WTC, but then the country is quite a bit smaller than the US, too.

WE NEED KUCINICH! The whole damned world NEEDS KUCINICH! Everyone who is fed up with pointless bloodshed NEEDS this man elected.

[AWD]

41. Kucinich missed one vote

...and Howard Dean has NEVER missed a single vote in the US House.

He's clearly the man for the job!

[genius]

61. Kucinich never missed any votes. Check his record.

Howard Dean skipped out on his last year as governor, the reason he wants to seal the records. Dean's record makes Gephardt's look great.

[mndemocrat_29]

18. First off

I like Dick Gephardt a lot. If he is our nominee, I will campaign for him as hard as I can. I think that he would make a fantastic president.

However, he needs to have a better record. He should've realized that this would come up. He was elected by the people of MO-3 and should be voting. I'm not saying that he should have a 100 percent (few do, which makes Kucinich's all the more impressive), but he should have a much, much higher voter percentage.

[revcarol]

20. What are we doing using Repuglican "talking points?"

Does Gephart do his job for his constituents? Are they happy?

Why do we have to use stuff from the repug talking points memos that go out to diss our own candidates?

Hey, flame me, I'm a Kucinich supporter, but surely one of our "repug team leaders" can quote the exact e-mail this comes from.

[dsc]

22. Do you think they won't raise this?

I can see missing some votes but 17 out of every 20. That is an astounding number of votes to be missing. It is especially bad when you consider that often votes are scheduled with travel in mind. If there is a good explanation for this he needs to express it and do so fast.

[diamondsoul]

35. Hiya. I don't think it's a Repuglican talking point.

I think it's a VOTER talking point. Do we want to elect a man who thinks it's perfectly ok to neglect his current job to campaign for a new position on the political ladder?

We don't tolerate that in the common workforce, why on Earth would we tolerate it from our legislators??

As far as why we do this, well one, it's a legitimate talking point for everyone to consider, and two, we have to narrow the field. As someone else said somewhere around here, these 9 aren't running as one block candidate. WE have to decide which ones are keepers and which ones we wouldn't vote for for all the tea in China. Gephart is one I want GONE for this very reason. He doesn't fulfill his duty to the people who elected him. Are his constituents satisfied isn't even a reasonable question because MOST voters are so completely out of touch with the goings on on Capital Hill. They don't even KNOW he isn't there to vote, much less whether he's voting the way they want him to.

I say this because I was one of those voters, until I discovered Kucinich. HE is solely responsible for me becoming an informed voter and actually paying attention to floor activity in Congress. I discovered that my own Democratic Rep needs to be replaced with someone who doesn't seel their vote to the highest bidder, and who actually has the proverbial balls to speak up....kinda like Kucinich.(the balls thing might be a tad unreasonable since my current Rep is a woman.) :D

In any case, it doesn't matter which party brought this issue up, the point is it's a legitimate point against him.

[Cocoa]

24. he has made his decision

He obviously knows this is going to be made into an issue, it always is, so he's decided to spend his time campaigning, and take his chances that if he gets his message across on the issues that people won't care about this.

[Garage Queen]

28. Hey, I have a thought! how about we all quit bashing each other's guys

and instead just say positive things about our own? HMMMMM?

"What a wonderful world it would be."

[sfecap]

30. It's not a bash.

It's a matter of record. Rep. Gephart is campaigning on the very issues he doesn't show up to vote for, and that is very relevant to the voters who have to decide whether to support him.

[blm]

37. Well, Dean is campaigning as a fighter

for the very same Democratic values he refused to fight for in Vermont for 11 years. But, that doesn't seem to bother you.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

38. Now, it's a bash.

[sfecap]

39. I'm sorry...I must have missed any mention of Dean

in the original post.

This isn't about him, it's about Gephardt.

Your obsession is almost laughable...

[diamondsoul]

36. How is it "bashing"

to prove to voters that Gep doesn't perform decently in his current elected position? It's backed up by the record, and some of us don't take that lightly no matter what party the candidate claims.

I don't think it's bashing at all to bring up facts that might reflect badly on the candidates. As I said upthread, we have no choice but to narrow the field of nominees. We can't nominate all 9 after all. The plain truth is some of them are going to be eliminated because of unfavorable actions on their own part. That's not bashing, it's how the process of elimination works.

Unity is one thing, not discussing potential risks of nominating specific candidates is no a reasonable course for Democrats to take at this time.

As a Kucinich supporter, it's been brought up to me repeatedly that he doesn't have a clear and winnable domestic defense policy. That's not "bashing" that's stating a legitimate problem with a specific candidate. That I disagree with that statement doesn't make any less valid as a talking point to narrow the field of nominees.

[dusty64]

29. And imagine he still gets paid.

I think his campaign is going nowhere in spite of his union endorsements. Wish he would put his energy into winning the Senate seat in Missouri against bond (he IS beatable).

[goobergunch]

32. IMHO Gephardt should resign

Then Gephardt can spend all of his time campaigning, while the people of MO-3 can get somebody that's actually in the House representing them.

[BrewCrew]

40. voting

are presidential campaigns too long? seriously. some of these cats have been running since 2001. it seems. the time candidates have to give in order to raise funds and set up organizations in the key early states is crazy. is there anyway we could shorten this. i mean the news media tries to dwindle the field everyday, but there has got to be a better way. anyway.

with the exception of Dennis and Graham, all the candidates (that hold elected office) leave something to be desired in this area. I think Kerry, Edwards, and Liebs have all missed close to 50% and if they were in the House that probably be in the 80's also. The friggin House votes on like 1500 bills a year. The Senate does about a 1/3 of that. Because of that, I don't imagine any of them making it an issue.

on the positive at least gephardt hasn't missed votes on amendments he's proposed...(Lieberman)

[JeniB]

42. I agree

How can he possibly expect to raise money and support without missing the votes. He is, after all, campaigning against someone who has no job at all. It's just not fair to expect him to be there so much. It would be better to check voting records before they start campaigning. I know, I know, Kucinich! But he also hasn't gotten as much support as Gephardt has. That's a great example of what happens if you ignore campaigning and just go to work.

[dsc]

43. Then why can these people run for the House?

Don't they raise money for that? Don't they travel for that? I do realize that there is some difference but he missed 17 out of every 20 votes. That is unreal. I think he had better have a better explanation than what you are giving him.

[JeniB]

44. Ever seen the difference between a state congressional district

and the whole country! That's the difference. Of course you guys (Deanites) would rather all of these guys go back to work and leave Dean to pick up all of the money and endorsements.

[dsc]

45. There is a happy medium

He missed 17 out of every 20 votes. The next worst one missed 10 out of every 20 votes. If you think Bush isn't going to run one hell of a comercial on this you are insane. The House schedule is set up for its members to travel home. I could understand missing some number of votes but this is an outlandish number. What I would prefer him to do is resign his seat if he is going to have to miss this many votes. Presumedly a Democrat would win the special election (if not when he doesn't run again in 04 we are screwed anyway). People will not vote for a man who they think isn't doing his current job. Dean chose not to run again for Governor so he could run for President. The Senators running are missing vastly fewer votes than he is. Kucinich, whose support has grown while Gephardt's has fallen has missed one vote. I could see missing up to around half the votes. Missing 17 out of every 20 is just not right.

[mndemocrat_29]

49. He probably should've resigned his seat

It may be too late in the year for that, but look at what will happen when Gephardt wins the nomination. Not only will Bush be all over this, Gephardt'll have to miss a lot of votes between Sept-Nov., as he will be campaigning heavily. If he is the nominee, he should resign his seat. State Sen. Steve Snoll or Russ Carnahan are the two currently in the lead for his seat in 2004 and either one of them would win in a special election.

[dsc]

51. It isn't too late

for him to do so. He could say he was trying to do both but realized as the missed votes piled up he couldn't. The special election would take only a few months and he could even time his resignation for the day his replacement is elected.

[mndemocrat_29]

52. That's a perfect way for him to exit

I'd support Russ Carnahan, who has the money to run this race (he's been fundraising something fierce lately).

[mndemocrat_29]

53. That's a perfect way for him to exit

I'd support Russ Carnahan, who has the money to run this race (he's been fundraising something fierce lately).

[JeniB]

59. I think he probably will if he gets the nomination.

Seriously, I think this thing started way to early. Probably earlier than he thought it would. I think with Dean not having anything else to do he just jumped into it. The other guys could have waited, but if they did Dean would be even farther ahead. Couldn't let that happen, and he really is keeping appraised of things. Nancy Pelosi will tell him to be there when he's needed. His district is not going without representation. He may have to explain, but he knows what he is doing. Of that I have no doubt.

[BrewCrew]

57. moot point

Not sure Bush could run an ad against Gephardt on this. When he was running for president from 1999-2000, he was away from Texas and subsequently his Governor duties like 425 of 500 days while campaigning. Not sure thats the exact number, but he was basically an absentee Governor.

[dsc]

58. That won't work

Unless they are trying to steal Congressional seats the Texas Legislature isn't in session many days at all. He is permitted to be out of state when they aren't in session. He has a reasonably good excuse.

[Hippo_Tron]

46. I rarely give kudos to a Republican

But at least Bob Dole had the common sense to leave the Senate when he ran for president. But whatever it's his district's loss really and if his district gets pissed he won't get re-elected. I mean South Carolina decided to have a senile Senator for 6 years (maybe more) so that was their decission and they lived with it.

[NewJerseyDem]

68. This is different

The people of his district didn't know that he was running for president. They thought they might be elected the Speaker of the House if the democrats took back control. Gephardt isn't running for reelection so they don't have the option to kick him out of office unless there are recalls in Missouri.

[ButterflyBlood]

55. He should just resign

Since he said he's not going to run for reelection anyway, I don't see the point in having a House seat with no representation. We should be able to retain his district in the special election, so it's no big deal.

[UnapologeticLiberal]

60. I'm pissed off at him over the Head Start vote

A GOP plan to screw up Head Start passed by 1 vote in the House and Gephardt was out campaigning. I don't care if he skips votes when it does not matter, but when it does matter, he should be there, and that made me really mad. But to be fair, I believe he was told he would not be needed, so it is not all his fault. But he should be there if there is even a decent chance he will be needed.

[genius]

63. Only one candidate's records are not open to inspection - Dean's

And he wants us to trust him.

[dsc]

64. as usual flat out false

You never cease to be wrong. The records that Dean has had locked up are routinely locked up for Congress. No member of Congress can be compelled to disclose the advice he or she gets, the people with whom he or she meets, or their personal schedules. Dean's public actions (laws, executive orders, policy memos, etc are public) So yet again you are flat out wrong. Do you ever bother to research stuff before you post?

[MercutioATC]

65. Exactly WHAT records do you think he's sealed???

Most of what he's done is public record. Daily schedules and intra-office memos don't interest me that much, do they you?

[UnapologeticLiberal]

75. He has plenty to inspect

You can inspect all of the bills he signed and vetoed as governor, just like you can inspect all of the votes of members of Congress. Asking for these other records, which most outgoing governors seal for a period of time, is like asking the senators and congressmen to disclose all of their memos to staff and to other members of congress, records of meetings with lobbyists, and other behind the scenes stuff that nobody else is being asked to disclose.