The Senate, trying to wrap up business before breaking for the upcoming holidays, is making life a little bit more complicated for five lawmakers who are also running for the White House.
 
The five senators seeking the mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have missed scores of votes over the last few months while out on the campaign trail wooing voters, but in the last couple of days they have shown up in the Senate for key roll calls on energy and farm issues.
 
On Thursday morning, all the Democratic candidates took a little time off the trail to vote on two measures, ending debate on an energy bill and an amendment to the farm measure. The sole Republican senator running for president, John McCain, missed all Senate votes this week.
 
Long-shot Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd initially was going to postpone an event on Friday morning in the critical early voting state of Iowa so he could be in Washington to vote on the $286 billion farm bill and mortgage crisis legislation he steered through a committee he chairs but those votes got delayed so he skipped them.

However, Senate business hasn’t stopped the candidates from missing important votes. All of them missed a roll call earlier this month to approve a free trade agreement with Peru (though had they been there, it would not have changed the outcome, a key reason candidates typically skip votes and rush back for close ones).

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Bourg