WELCOME TO THE SILLY SEASON

Either just prior to or just after the New Hampshire primary this year, I called a friend of mine in Philadelphia. At that early date, I already felt too caught up in the process and I wanted to find out if this was an anomaly that was occurring nationwide, or was it just because I had a viable candidate coming out of the state where I resided, Illinois.

My friend, who was born and grew up in Canada, admitted that she was not caught up in the election as of yet and she was actually extremely annoyed by it. She was bewildered by how much time these candidates were spending campaigning when they should be doing their jobs.

I had not expected such an observation and had no response for it. Two months later I find I completely agree with the sentiment. Sill, the two candidates that come to mind that made special efforts to do their jobs, Biden and Dodd, were out of the contest relatively early. It seems that short of a law forbidding candidates who are also congressmen or cabinet members from actively campaigning at the expense of their elected position, or an across the board agreement by citizens not to vote for such people, nothing can be done to stop this. At least for 2008 it must be an accepted fact that all three remaining major party candidates for presidency are active members of the U.S. Senate who are running while neglecting at least some if not most aspects of their job.

Since 1900 only two people have been elected president while serving in the Senate, Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy. This is not due in any way to a lack of attempts. The two most recent candidates have been Bob Dole and John Kerry. Admittedly Dole resigned his post once he became the nominee but I think he still counts. Usually these senatorial candidates are at a disadvantage due to the fact that their opponent is not a senator. Often they are incumbents and can use the neglect as a weapon against the congressionally employed adversary. Many times the opponent may be an active governor. The senator can still be at a disadvantage as the opponent and his supporters can then use the senator’s voting record and manipulate the American public’s woeful ignorance of the workings of the U.S. Senate against them.

The patron saint of such activity is Zell Miller the former Democrat turned ranting right-wing coot who gave a ridiculous yet probably election winning speech at the 2004 Republican Convention.

The focus of his speech was all the weapons and weapons systems John Kerry had voted against during his years in the U.S. Senate. Towards the end of the several minute lie Miller asked what Kerry expected U.S. Armed Forces to be armed with, “spit balls?”

Funny stuff.

The only problem was that many of those weapon and weapons systems were also voted against by many of the people in that room including Dick Cheney. Many other ones had been attached to much larger bills unrelated to the weapons or weapons systems. When they were attached to more agreeable bills or were the main subject, Kerry voted for them.

Since then I have always been mindful of how much I wish the workings of our government were taught in greater detail than in a nine month course during the senior year of high school. Such ignorance is what I believe to be the main reason why so many qualified senators have not become president.

Add to the manipulator worshippers of Zell Miller the name: Hillary Clinton.

I had hoped that since all three candidates were senators that an agreement reminiscent of a mutually assured destruction pact would be unofficially made: No attacks on senatorial inactivity between the period of official announcement of candidacy and the end of the respective campaign.

The desperate Clinton broke such an agreement with her final T.V. ad before the March 4 primaries. In fact she had broken it several times over the past week in several speeches as well as her last debate appearance.

The subject was the fact that Barack Obama has not held a substantive meeting of the subcommittee he chairs on NATO. The fact that Obama received this chairmanship after the campaign began is not overlooked by the Clinton campaign they consider it shameful that Obama would shirk his duties to pursue his bid for president.

On February 11, just prior to the Potomac primaries a vote was taken in the senate regarding government wiretapping and cooperation by the telephone companies. It was an extension of the controversial law that gave the telephone companies immunity from investigation. Obama voted against the extension McCain voted for it. Clinton was unable to attend the vote due to campaign commitments she had. It was just a vote. A one day thing that was far from being as time consuming as preparation for a substantive subcommittee hearing that probably would have been viewed as political grandstanding by a presidential candidate.

By the way, in case you forgot, the Potomac Primairies took place in and around Washington D.C.

Coincidentally, that’s also where the Senate sometimes—in fact always—votes.

The fact that the Obama campaign has not made an issue of this as of yet shows more restraint than I could imagine as well as intelligence since it would become a constant round robin of accusations of neglect.

It’s a valid complaint. But they are all guilty of it. So it should not count against one more than another.

My reason for writing this is to make it clear this is either a non-issue or a transgression for which all three candidates should apologize.

J.A.L.