Democrat presidential hopeful has missed 90% of Senate votes.

WASHINGTON - Recently, North Carolina Senator and Democrat presidential contender John Edwards has had to defend his job performance in the Senate. Perhaps it is because North Carolinians suspect they are not getting their money's worth.

During the current month of September, Mr. Edwards has missed 38 of 42 roll call votes in the Senate, or about 90%. The senator, who earlier this month announced he will not seek reelection to the Senate to focus on his presidential campaign, has repeatedly said, however, that his bid for the White House has had no effect on his overall performance in the Senate.

"Missing 90% of your chamber's votes is the equivalent of 10% job performance for a lawmaker," said taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform in Washington D.C. "Imagine if doing 10% of the job was good enough in other lines of work such as car or airplane manufacturing or surgery. What a bloody world that would be!"

Nevertheless, Senator Edwards defends his job-performance saying that his voting record is a poor measure of his involvement in Senate business.

However, the senator's voting record is hardly unusual for a presidential contender and is, in fact, better than three of his fellow Senate colleagues who are also making their bids for the Oval Office. In light of Senator Edward's absences and his decision not to seek reelection, Republicans have asked that he step down.

"In the business world, a popular sales pitch is to offer consumers '100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back," continued Mr. Norquist. "Applying that concept to Senator Edwards and his 10% job performance, I propose that the senator return 90% of his salary to the taxpayers. John Edwards is concerned with fairness and my proposal is only fair."