http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/clinton-takes-month-off-2008-06-17.html

Quote :

"Clinton takes month off By J. Taylor Rushing Posted: 06/17/08 07:44 PM [ET] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is taking a month off from Congress to recuperate after her marathon run for the presidency. She is not expected to return to the Senate until July 7 or July 8 after the Independence Day recess, according to two Democratic sources. Clinton’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate are taking a sympathetic attitude toward her extended absence, which comes after a grueling 18-month formal bid for the White House and, according to some calculations, a decade or more of planning and positioning since the days when her husband was president. “People understand this is a transition for her,” Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) said. It is a transition from the possibility of the most powerful job in the world to the reality of a junior senatorship among 99 others in a chamber dominated by overweening egos that have already indicated they will make no special provision for her to ascend quickly to a leadership role. A statement issued Tuesday by Clinton’s Senate spokesman, Philippe Reines, said the senator “took some well-deserved R&R with her family last week, and she’ll be back here before you know it.? In the meantime, she continues to work for New York and America, and she’ll be fighting harder than ever for the issues she has throughout her public life.” Reines would not say where Clinton is vacationing, and most senators said they did not know her location either. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a stalwart supporter of Clinton’s presidential bid, would say only that she and former President Bill Clinton “wanted to go somewhere private and far away where she could rest.” The Senate’s Democratic leaders, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer of New York, downplayed the effect that Clinton’s extended absence is having on their ability to move the party’s agenda in the upper chamber. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois added that a traditional agreement between Clinton, Obama and the Senate leaders during the primary remains in effect: Clinton will return when summoned for critical votes. “It [her absence] has not had any impact on anything significant yet,” Durbin said of Clinton’s absence. “She has been great. She has returned every time we needed her.” With Clinton gone, Democrats are without another member at a time when they hold a 51-49 majority in the chamber. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is away being treated for brain cancer; Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the Appropriations Committee chairman, was hospitalized earlier this month, the third time this year; and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is pushing ahead on the presidential campaign trail with little time to spare for Capitol Hill. That won’t change things too much in the short run, given that the Senate requires 60 votes to move controversial legislation. “If you get down to one or two [votes], obviously it could make a difference. But we’re not close right now, and everybody believes that Sen. Clinton is entitled to a little R&R,” said Feinstein. Those comments were echoed by Clinton allies Sens. Evan Bayh (D) of Indiana and Sheldon Whitehouse (D) of Rhode Island, both of whom endorsed her during the primary. Clinton, the first serious female contender for a major party’s presidential nomination, ended her campaign on June 7 at a speech at the National Building Museum in Washington. She then abruptly canceled her public schedule and has gone into a period of seclusion. She had formally opened her campaign with a website announcement establishing an exploratory committee on Jan. 20, 2007, and led the Democratic field in polls throughout 2007. But she finished only in third place in the Iowa caucus in January and, despite winning the New Hampshire primary soon thereafter, was unable to prevent a steady shift of votes and delegates to Obama’s column. Few people saw Clinton as a long-term senator after her initial election in 2000. It was widely assumed that she would make a run for the presidency. Now that that goal appears to have eluded her, at least temporarily, there is equally widespread speculation about what her next goal will be. A run for the governorship of New York state has often been mentioned, and another presidential bid in 2012 has also been discussed, with Obama’s defeat this year as a prerequisite. At least one Clinton supporter suggested Clinton’s absence may be prolonged. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said Clinton would be “joining us later this summer,” when asked about her return. Reines said this referred to a public event Mikulski and Clinton will both be attending later in the summer. Manu Raju contributed to this article. "

I'm sure the people of the State of New York are happy to hear that she needs a month off after losing the Democratic primary. Just imagine how much time she would have needed if she had won the election.

6/18/2008 9:00:25 PM

how many hours are they in session for per week?

6/18/2008 11:18:18 PM

If I lost anything to barack obama I would need longer than a month off.

6/18/2008 11:43:40 PM

I wish we had video of her crying afterwards.

6/18/2008 11:47:06 PM

takes month off= meeting with him this week lol

6/19/2008 2:07:54 AM

Call me when I can "take the month off" and still get paid my six figure salary.

You lost. Quit yer damn cryin and get back to work already.

6/19/2008 2:19:34 AM

There's no reason for any of us to cry about it. She's not our state senator (thank God), and I'm confident that New York State (hell, New York City) pays a large enough percentage of federal taxes that none of us is covering her salary.

[Edited on June 19, 2008 at 3:01 AM. Reason : Let them vote her into irrelevance, for God's sake]

6/19/2008 3:00:44 AM

I don't know why politicians these days feel it's okay to do this. Clinton taking a month off. Bush taking more vacation than any other president. I'm starting to expect our governor to start pulling this shit next

6/19/2008 5:41:52 AM

I'm glad she's not my senator. And McCain's gone more than a month without showing up to work at least once in the past year or two.

6/19/2008 12:24:53 PM

Quote :

"There's no reason for any of us to cry about it. She's not our state senator (thank God), and I'm confident that New York State (hell, New York City) pays a large enough percentage of federal taxes that none of us is covering her salary."

This is less about Hillary per se than the general culture of Congress - they barely even put in time in session at is (like they're paid for) and take month-long recesses already. On top of that, the federal employees we pay handsomely still "take the month off."

I invite any one of you to try that at your job, especially one that pays significantly less, and observe the consequences.

6/19/2008 12:30:49 PM

Quote :

"I invite any one of you to try that at your job, especially one that pays significantly less, and observe the consequences."

I'm forced to take June and July off.

But it's not like they lie on the couch for a month-- there's much more to the job than voting in DC. I'd be pretty surprised if you could find a single representative that averages less than 60 hours a week spent on job-related duties.

6/19/2008 12:37:36 PM

Are we counting hours spent on naked efforts to get re-elected? Because then, sure, I suppose you could come up with those kinds of hours.

Call me cynical, but it seems like a lot of the tasks we give credit to our reps for generally are handled by staff as it is - answering constituent mail, reading bills(!), etc. So I often wonder just what it is that these people actually do aside from take up space and work to get re-elected.

6/19/2008 12:40:23 PM

I think it depends on the person. Like take a look at David Price. That's a man who does a lot in North Carolina when Congress is out of session. I remember being in elementary and middle school and he would show up to talk about whatever. And he's still doing stuff like that all the time.

6/21/2008 2:36:21 AM

Now if only we could get all our politicians to vacation year round...

6/21/2008 8:33:08 AM

BA DUM CHHAYNRAND
(libertarian rim shot)

6/21/2008 10:31:43 AM

she apparently recouping from her long campaign by starting to campaign for obama

6/21/2008 11:00:47 AM