If you were already somewhat safely employed but had bigger ambitions and wanted to look for another job, would you do things like spend company money sending emails from work with copies of your resume on your employer's dime? Would you find a way to charge new suits for your interviews to your employer? Would you take off weeks at a time from your current job to go to those interviews and think nobody would notice?
Say you did all those things, and someone caught you doing them, and that person went and told your employer about it. Would you attack the messenger for pointing it out, belittle and insult them for doing so while invading their personal space, and then go on your merry way because after all, your Daddy once worked for the company, and for that reason alone you should just get away with it? Do you think your employer would ignore your actions and just say "No matter! Carry on?"
Probably not.
But say you were a member of Congress with bigger ambitions like running for the U.S. Senate?
Would you send out taxpayer funded emails to residents in districts you don't reside in and charge clothing from Brooks Brothers to your campaign, both of which are violations, attack a reporter by writing angry complaint letters because his paper was "mean to you" when it endorsed another candidate, and spend the majority of the time you had left over from that going to fundraisers?
Or would you do your job by showing up in Washington and actually voting once in a while?
If you thought to yourself, "Why, of course I would be in Washington voting, after all that's what I was elected to do," then you would not be Connie Mack IV.
Connie Mack has chosen to take the juvenile route on the low road described above rather than doing the job he already holds, hoping the taxpayers he represents won't notice. When a reporter calls him out on it, he attacks the reporter, no doubt hoping that if he plays the "evil liberal media" card from the sad and tired Republican playbook, said reporter will be intimidated and back off. Maybe bend entirely in the other direction toward the right no matter what the facts are in the hopes of no further attacks.
If that's what Mack is trying to do, it doesn't seem to be working for him, (although he's doing a really good job of making a fool of himself) and let's hope it stays that way, because facts are facts no matter how foreign facts may be to the Mack campaign:
Graphic: GovTrack
When a reporter from the Tampa Bay Times pointed out that Mack has been far from Washington a lot lately and missing a huge amount of votes, Mack doubled down on the juvenile intimidation antics and had his campaign fire off another angry letter, this one more ridiculous than the last:
Adam Smith
The Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Dear Adam,
Since we recently (and appropriately) criticized you for unfairly attacking Connie while doing everything you can to protect Bill Nelson, your latest attack comes as no surprise.
I guess you just can’t help yourself.
You tweeted and reported that Connie missed votes this year. What you didn’t mention is that when Bill Nelson was in Congress and running statewide for Governor in 1990, he had the absolute worst voting record of anyone in Congress. He missed a whopping 56% of his votes. Surely you must know that.
Once again you are acting like Bill Nelson’s Communications Director doing opposition research on your opponent while ignoring the record of your own candidate. The only thing that surprises me, Adam, is that you would do this so soon after being exposed.
I’m sure Bill Nelson appreciates all your doing for him. But Adam, there’s still time for your redemption, and the people would appreciate that so much more.
Your friend,
Jeff Cohen
Why yes Rep. Mack, you're just too clever by half!
There's a scandalous headline for you:
"REPORTER "EXPOSED" FOR NOT MENTIONING 22 YEAR OLD VOTING RECORD!"
Seriously Rep. Mack??
Since you've shown so little interest in your current job, maybe it's best to let the grownup stick with the one you're running for.
