Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) missed the last 43 House votes and hadn’t been seen for a month, several news reports noted yesterday. Moreover, her office had been mum on the matter. The eight-term incumbent is 83 years old, and her last recorded House vote was on April 17. House reporter Jaime Dupree noted on BlueSky Wednesday that she “missed all 10 votes on Wednesday in the House,” leading to the questions being raised yesterday. “80% of life is just showing up,” Woody Allen supposedly said. That’s a low bar, and Wilson still hasn’t cleared it.
Last night, Wilson surfaced at last and explained that she is recovering from eye surgery. “Following left eye surgery, my priority has been ensuring a full and responsible recovery,” Wilson said. “Although I am currently unable to fly under my doctors’ orders, my work has not stopped for a single day. While recovering in the district, I have continued carrying out my official duties, meeting with leaders, local organizations, city and county officials, and constituents.”
Nope, not good enough, not hardly. Normal people can’t just disappear from work for a month without adverse consequences, and elected officials have a duty to their constituents to be on the job or to inform the public and the news media why they aren’t. Wilson’s X timeline showed no change since she disappeared four weeks ago, and her staff was apparently under instructions to keep everyone in the dark about her whereabouts, in one case posting a photo of her represented as recent that was really a year old. That’s unacceptable.
Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense went AWOL too, though only for ten days, in 2024. He should have been fired, but Joe didn’t fire anybody, no matter how useless, incompetent or unqualified he or she might be. Wilson should be fired by her district’s voters in November, but of course she won’t be.
If you cant trust your Congresswoman to show up to vote or let you know why she isn’t, then you can’t trust your Congresswoman, period. Wilson’s party is claiming that Jim Crow is back and blacks are being “disenfranchised” because the Supreme Court won’t allow “good discrimination” to guarantee majority black districts. Wilson represents one of those districts, and not showing up in Congress to vote really does “disenfranchise ” her constituents.
Of course, Wilson now assures us that she was “carrying out [her] official duties,” except for the only one that is absolutely required. Why would anyone believe her?
Ethics Alarms 
Jack wrote, “Wilson represents one of those districts, and not showing up in Congress to vote really does ‘disenfranchise’ her constituents.”
I suspect that, by not showing up, she is actually doing her constituents a favor because she isn’t casting stupid votes on stupid laws. That may be a net positive.
In fact, the more I hear people complain that Congress ins’t doing its job, the more I think, “well, thank Heavens for small miracles. Imagine the amount of real damage those bozos in Congress would do if they actually did the job of legislating.”
jvb
Sadly her district isn’t on the chopping block under the new redistricting post Louisiana v. Callais.
Have any “leaders, local organizations…”etc. actually confirmed contact with her over the past month?
Looks to me like an argument for term limits and age limits for Senators and Representatives. If you are 83 years old you should not be in Congress nor in the State Assembly. Time to retire.
Agreed.
Okay, so she can’t fly because of eye surgery. That’s fair.
She can still ride in a car. Yeah, it’s a long drive from Florida to Washington DC but you knew this when you had the surgery.
Frankly, I’m skeptical that there even WAS any eye surgery considering what’s apparently transpired before this announcement.
–Dwayne