Priorities!

John, you look like a real jerk when you do something like this:

The Senate by a single vote rejected an election-year effort Tuesday to extend federal unemployment benefits.

Democrats tried to attach the benefit to a corporate tax bill. On a 59-40 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, they fell just shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome objections that extending the benefits violated last year's budget agreement.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was the only senator who missed the vote. He was campaigning in Kentucky.

It is hard to see how the benefits of his campaign stop in Kentucky outweigh the potential harm of this story, not that is devastating, but when put into a broader narrative it could cause problems for Kerry. Also, and this point is more important that the tactical foolishness of Kerry's decision, people are going to run out of their unemployment relief because of this and sink into poverty. It is really hard to justify that, especially when you are a liberal democrat.