Who Needs Senate Orientation Any Old How?

CBSnews.com reported today that Freshmen Lawmakers Begin Orientation, it appears that all of the newly elected freshmen Senators were in attendance...

...with the exception of Senator Elect Claire McCaskill.

According to the report:

"Tester later appeared with his fellow Democratic freshmen _ minus Missouri's Claire McCaskill, who is on a post-election vacation with her husband...."

Kevin McCarthy of California remarked that:

"...the ethics training was important for those like him who came from state legislatures with different rules."

Indiana Rep. Joe Donnelly, a Democrat is reported as expressing:

"he was mostly concerned about getting his office up and running "as quickly as possible, so we can start working for the people back home.""

According to STLtoday Missourians should just Mark Her Absent, one of her spokeswomen said:

“She promised her family that, win or lose, she would take time to be with them after this election.”

Well, I don't know about the rest of Missourians but as a married woman who loves and values my own husband, I think I could expect my husband to be understanding about my need to attend orientation on behalf of my constituents who just days ago elected me to represent them in the United States Senate. If this is any indication of what we can expect from a Senator McCaskill I must say I'm even more underwhelmed than expected.

From the reports I read it appears that McCaskill is the only freshman Senator who felt that orientation simply wasn't important enough to set aside previous plans. Perhaps she feels she has enough understanding of her new job that she really didn't need to be there.