I’m interested in the saga of Representative Tom Kean Jr. He’s been missing from Congress for the past three months due to an unspecified illness. My first contact with a politician was when I met Kean’s father at our County Fair when he was running for Governor in 1981. For an 8-year-old, shaking the hand of a candidate like that was exciting stuff.
I’m also thinking about Kean Jr. because one of the hearings held by the Bayh Subcommittee was on a proposed constitutional amendment by Margaret Chase Smith to create a rule of mandatory expulsion from Congress if a member missed more than 40% of the roll call votes in a given year. My understanding is that Smith was proud of her perfect attendance record and greatly offended by people who missed votes. Needless to say, that proposal never went anywhere.