Good Work if You Can Get It

Have we gone blind?  Consider that

Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who represents New Jersey’s 7th District, voted in favor of President Trump’s immigration crackdown on March 5, but disappeared thereafter for almost four months.

During his absence, a spokesman said more than once that the Congressman was looking forward to getting back to work, but never offered an explanation for his absence or specified a return date.

Kean missed 140 votes before his return to Congress on June 30, when he announced during a short speech on the House floor that he was being treated for depression. After the speech, he declined to answer questions about why he vanished quietly, but said he is a private person. He also declined to discuss details about his treatment and hospital stay or why his expected return date kept changing.

(This is Kean's modus operandi, the video below from last September.)

 

I was born in July, but I wasn't born yesterday.  Kean missed 140 votes before his return to Congress.... Meanwhile, his "social media accounts continued to post in the first person" and he "digitally signed congressional disclosure documents about his stock trades."

Moreover, Kean has been able to maintain his modesty, boasting in his speech "asking for help is not a weakness. It is a strength."

Yet, we do not know that he asked for help. He entered a hospital, he claims, but doesn't say which hospital, for how long, or what form his "depression" took. (Have you ever not been depressed? If not, enjoy the extraorinarily exclusive club to which you belong.)

And there is something else we don't know. Included in those 140 votes were controversial votes on....?

We don't know because no one in the media has bothered to list those votes. That's because no one in the Democratic Party has bothered to raise the issue, notwithstanding that just as Kean returned to Congress, on the last day of June

According to an invitation shared with POLITICO, a reception in support of Kean, a top Democratic target this fall, has been scheduled for the evening of June 30. Few other details are known about the fundraiser; Kean’s spokespeople declined to comment, though they did not deny the event’s existence.

Kean also has at least four more fundraisers scheduled for later in the summer and fall, according to a schedule reviewed by POLITICO. That’s far from abnormal for a politician in a competitive race, but in the context of Kean’s lengthy absence, it’s an indication that the congressmember is indeed fully committed to his reelection campaign, as he’s repeatedly asserted.

In only a slight exaggeration, timing, it is said, is everything. Knowing when to go away and when to return can be key.

He is far more committed, evidenly, to his reelection campaign than he is to recovery from whatever depression he may be suffering from. And this is not trivial because the GOP controls the House of Representatives 219-212 with four vacancies, and Democrats hopeful about a majority following the November elections. New Jersey's 7th District is a swing district, one in which independent-minded voters would be prone to support a candidate who would not vote faithfully for President Trump's agenda, as does the incumbent. With Kean's extended absence, problem solved- votes were not cast.

Is he pulling a con? We don't know precisely because few details have been given. It has frozen Democrats in their tracks because they are afraid of the blowback if anyone even questions someone claiming to have an illness, which "depression" is reputed to be. 

It has not occurred to Democrats that voters would not be as tolerant of a GOP candidate who misses months of work, with no explanation at the time, as they themselves are. Would your job be waiting for you if you stayed away for four monts without telling anyone? But, no, we won't hear that- and Democrats will go on not understanding why they're considered "elitist".

Maine senatorial candidate or former candidate Graham Platner must be green with envy. He could have admitted having made mistakes and copped to being an alcoholic. But, no, he had to deny committing heinous acts to the disbelief of most voters.  Take it from Representative Kean: go with depression, alcoholism, anything which can be considered a disease, and let your political troubles melt away.

In only a slight exaggeration, timing, it is said, is everything. Knowing when to go away and when to return can be key. Privileged, with a sense of entitlement. That characterizes Tom Kean Jr., and New Jersey Democrats should find a way to make them define the congressman..

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