Obama, McCain should return pay

Imagine, if you will, what would happen if you decided to essentially take a year off from your job so you could put in the kind of all-out effort needed to land a better one.

Only, you didn't quit your old job. You didn't take a leave of absence. You figured that during your yearlong search for a new job, you'd drop by the office every now and then and try to do the old one as best you could.

In the real world where most of us live, what do you think would happen? Do you think your boss would let you keep the old job, given such minimal effort? Do you think you'd still get full pay?

Of course, there is the real world. And then there is the world of politics.

In the real world, you'd never think you could get away with something like that.

In the world of politics, the inhabitants think they're entitled. In fact, they're so accustomed to this sense of entitlement that it doesn't even occur to them to question the perks.

Look, we don't want to be unreasonable here. We like Barack Obama and John McCain. We endorsed each in their respective primaries.

And we recognize that Obama and McCain are running for president of the United States, and that's not the kind of thing you do on the weekends. It takes a tremendous effort. And it takes time. We understand that.

We're not questioning why the two of them aren't spending more time attending to their duties in the Senate.

But we are asking - particularly with Obama, since he's one of our Illinois' senators - why should we pay them for a job they're not doing?

Each is taking a salary of $169,300 from the taxpayers this year, but neither is earning it. In fact, a reasonable person could challenge how much of last year's salaries they earned too.

Both have dismal attendance records with their Senate committees. And their percentage of missed votes on the floor is an embarrassment.

McCain has missed more votes than any other senator in the 110th Congress dating back to January 2007, according to the washingtonpost.com Votes Database - 407 votes, or 63.8 percent of all the votes called.

Obama's missed-votes record is almost as bad, according to the Votes Database - 290 votes, or 45.5 percent, the third-worst record in the Senate.

Only Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota is in the same league, with a 48.7 percent missed-votes total, and that's because he missed several months recovering from a brain hemorrhage.

The missed-votes percentages for McCain and Obama are even worse this calendar year - more than 80 percent for McCain and more than 60 percent for Obama. McCain hasn't voted since April 8; Obama hasn't since July 9.

Make no mistake about it. Running for president is a high-minded endeavor. Good for them.

But be that as it may, Obama and McCain are not fulfilling their Senate obligations, and they would be foolish to try to suggest they are.

We the taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it.

They should give their salaries back.