Hare's No. 1 duty: Show up and vote

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Of all the items on newly-minted U.S. Rep. Phil Hare's to-do list, we ask him to put this at the top: Show up every single day the House is in session, and vote on every bill.

That's the most important duty the Democrat from Rock Island can perform as the new Congress convenes Thursday. It outranks constituent service, giving speeches, sending out news releases, holding press conferences and arranging the furniture in his new office.

You see, Hare's predecessor hardly voted at all last year due to illness, leaving 17th Congressional District constituents without representation on hundreds of key votes.

On behalf of the people he represents, Hare has some catching up to do.

Hare was a longtime aide for retiring U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, also a Rock Island Democrat. Evans had forged a good attendance record since his election in 1982. However, as Parkinson's disease stole away his health, finally forcing Evans to announce nine months ago that he would leave Congress, 17th District residents were less and less represented on the House floor when the clerk called the roll.

In 2006, 543 votes were taken in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the Web site washingtonpost.com. Evans voted only 40 times, or 7.4 percent. In fact, the ailing Evans cast the fewest votes of any regular House member during the past year.

Voting on bills is where the rubber meets the road. If a congressman fails to vote, no matter the reason, the people are silenced.

Evans was popular with voters. They re-nominated him for a 13th term in last March's primary, only to find out one week later that he had decided not to run in the fall election after all and instead was endorsing the appointment of Hare to run on the Democratic ticket in his place. Hare went on to snare the nomination, then defeat Republican Andrea Zinga in November.

Now at age 57, Hare is a freshman congressman for a district which had precious little voice on the House floor last year.

To us, Hare's first and foremost duty is crystal clear.

We'll keep an eye on his record and see how committed Hare is to representing his constituents. After the past year, anything less than perfect attendance will be a profound disappointment.