McCain casts a vote!

If you recall, I wrote a post on Saturday, reporting Arizona Senator John McCain's profane shouting match with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) over McCain's absence of his Senate duties, while spending all that time on the presidential campaign trail. Well, I went over to Talking Points Memo, and discovered this breaking news flash--McCain casts a vote in the Senate! TPM linked into a small story on TPM Cafe:

The pressure has apparently gotten to John McCain over his recent absenteeism from the Senate, which we first noticed last week. After missing every single floor vote held from April 16 to the present — a total of 46 consecutive missed votes — in order to focus on campaigning for President, McCain made it to the floor today to cast a vote.

And what crucial measure was it that merited his attention? It was an amendment to the immigration bill by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), "To exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas."

A McCain aide has told the local press, "Although he has missed a few votes, he works really hard to ensure that he has not missed any votes in which his vote would have been the determining one." But here's the thing: This amendment wasn't controversial, and passed 87-9. This leads us to believe McCain simply had to show up for a vote in order to stop the talk about his absences.

A couple of things here. First, I didn't know about the WaPost vote database for the Congressmen. Now I do, so I'll be looking more closely into McCain's absences in voting, and comparing them to the rest of the presidential candidates--that would be a nice weekend post to explore. Second, I just love how the McCain campaign tries to dismiss this as nothing--Although he has missed a few votes, he works really hard to ensure that he has not missed any votes in which his vote would have been the determining one. How much more stupid can you get here? Senator McCain works really hard to ensure that he will not miss any votes in which his vote would have been the determining vote. And to prove it, McCain casts a Senate vote on an amendment to the immigration bill. It is true. McCain's vote was the determining vote to pass this amendment--along with the 86 other senators who cast their determining votes to pass the amendment. TPM Cafe is correct in saying that McCain simply showed up to cast a Senate vote in order to stop the talk of his absenteeism.

The big question to ask here is how long will it be before McCain bails out of his Senate duties again? Will he show up for the next senate vote?