"I should mention how glad my fellow Democrats and I were to have our nominee for president here to vote on these important bills. Senator Obama has come to work and taken tough stands. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Senator McCain," Reid groused. "Perhaps taking tough stands on important issues is not part of Senator McCain's campaign strategy. Perhaps he's just too busy on the campaign trail to do his day job."
Obama left the campaign trail this week to vote in favor of warrantless wiretapping legislation he was roundly criticized for supporting, and for legislation preventing a cut in physician reimbursements from Medicare. McCain expressed his opinion -- in favor of the former, against the latter -- but did not cast a ballot.
As of July 7, McCain had missed 61.8 percent of the roll call votes in this Congress, which made him the No. 1 absentee in the Senate (number two was Tim Johnson, who has been recovering from a brain hemorrhage). Obama missed 43.5 percent of the roll call votes.
McCain's performance, however, is not unprecedented. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) missed 488 votes -- 72.3 percent of the total -- during the 108th Congress in his failed bid for the White House.