Massachusetts representatives help to pass energy bill

By their absence:

Republicans muscled the bill through by a single vote, only after 40 minutes of arm-twisting on the House floor persuaded several moderate Republicans to change their minds and vote yes. The measure is designed to spur construction of new oil refineries through relaxed environmental standards and by opening up abandoned military bases to construction of refining facilities.
. . .
(Three Massachusetts Democrats -- representatives William Delahunt of Quincy, Richard E. Neal of Springfield, and John W. Olver of Amherst -- missed the vote. Delahunt is traveling in Mexico and Neal was attending a funeral in his district, according to spokesmen for the congressmen. Olver's office did not return calls.)

Olver is my representative. Every two years he runs the same TV commercial with him traveling all over Western MA as if being peripatetic is some kind of virtue. But he’s a Democrat so he’ll hold that seat until he dies.