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| From © The Detroit News |
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Political Insider: Kildee milestone gets stuck in snow |
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February 10, 2010By Deb Price |
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"Snowmageddon" stopped virtually all action in the nation's capital and delayed Rep. Dale Kildee 's push toward a voting milestone.
Kildee, D-Flint, expected to cast his 20,000th vote Wednesday. But all votes in the House were canceled this week, leaving him stuck at 19,993.
"I'm sitting here at my kitchen window looking at all the snow," Kildee told Political Insider in a telephone interview. "I'd rather be voting."
The 80-year-old will have to wait until at least Feb. 22 to cast those seven votes, because next week Congress is on break.
Kildee loathes missing votes. In April, he timed getting a new knee to the congressional spring break, so he could heal and get through therapy to be back in time for the first vote. He made it.
Since he was sworn in to the House in 1977, he's missed only 27 votes, partly due to a hospital stay for an ulcer. He's been called the "Cal Ripken of Congress," a reference to the retired Baltimore Orioles shortstop who holds the record for the most consecutive games played in Major League Baseball.
"You have a lot of obligations in Congress, but the primary job is voting," Kildee says. |
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