Edwards Hometown Newspaper

[Sunfish]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 10:59pm

is happy for the plug from the VP. But felt they had to set the record straight.
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http://www.thepilot.com/opinion/100604PilotEditorial2.html

'Senator Gone'?

It's not every day that a non-daily paper in a small town gets mentioned in a nationally televised debate in prime time. But it happened to The Pilot Tuesday night.

"His hometown newspaper has taken to calling him 'Senator Gone,'" Vice President Richard Cheney said of his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Edwards.

Well, not exactly.

The Pilot hasn't "taken to calling him" anything. In fact, the vice president's obscure reference sent us scrambling to our library. And sure enough, we did publish an editorial 15 months ago, on June 25, 2003, headlined, "Edwards Should Do His Day Job." In it, we noted that Sen. Jesse Helms used to be called "Senator No." And we added: "Four and a half years into his first term, John Edwards is becoming known as Senator Gone."

The reference was to Edwards' frequent absences from the Senate floor as he traveled here and there (mostly there) pursuing his presidential ambitions.

But we also wrote: "Members of the senator's staff point out that
Edwards' attendance record this year has been better than the three other Democratic senators who are campaigning for president - Joe Lieberman, Richard Gephardt and Bob Graham. And the aides also say none of the votes Edwards missed was close, so his presence on the floor would not have changed the outcome."

Thanks for the plug, Mr. Vice President. We're proud to count you among our many readers.