On the Hill, the sound of silence :nopity:
John Sweeney, still reeling from re-election loss to Kirsten Gillibrand, fails to show for votes
By JUDY HOLLAND, Washington bureau
First published: Sunday, December 10, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Since losing re-election last month, Rep. John Sweeney has played hooky in Congress, skipping votes, dodging reporters and avoiding his new make-shift office in a basement cubicle set up for lame ducks.
Sweeney's friends and colleagues Capitol Hill say the Republican from Clifton Park is still stunned about the outcome of the Nov. 7 election when he lost to Democratic challenger Kirsten Gillibrand.
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, a close friend of Sweeney's, says the four-term Republican is "frustrated and angry" and feels he was unfairly attacked a week before the election after the Times Union and other newspapers disclosed that police had investigated a domestic dispute between Sweeney and his wife on Dec. 2, 2005.
Sweeney plummeted in pre-election public opinion polls after newspapers disclosed police records documenting the emergency 911 call that his wife Gaia made to police after midnight from their Clifton Park home.
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"He feels that he's gotten the (expletive deleted) kicked out of him enough," Sessions said. Sessions said Sweeney was too busy to vote or talk to a reporter. "He's trying to move out of his apartment and he's making calls to get his people placed," Sessions said, referring to Sweeney's displaced staffers. Sessions said Sweeney told him: "I'm so busy, I don't know how I'm going to be down there," he said, referring to the House floor. Meanwhile, Sweeney's colleagues tried to make sense of his surprise defeat. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-East Amherst, who narrowly won re-election, said Sweeney had "one of the safest seats in the Northeast" but lost because the campaign "got personal."
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http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=543338This is so heartrending. I am so sick of being sad. Sometimes I think I'll stop reading the news, because of all the sad stories.
:cry: :nopity: