If it's true, as actor-director Woody Allen says, that "Eighty percent of success is showing up," then several of our elected representatives in Illinois are not being very successful at representing us.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller of Morris came under fire this week for being the only congressman to miss Monday's vote on a financial bailout plan.

A representative of Weller said the congressman was "tending to a family matter."

But what about the other 112 votes Weller has missed in the past 12 months?

According to www.Govtrack.us, Weller has missed 213 out of 878 votes between Oct. 1, 2007, and Sept. 30. That means the retiring Weller has missed about 24 percent of the votes.

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria, a fellow Republican who also is retiring this year, has missed 127 votes in the same time period, about 14.4 percent.

Their records are positively stellar compared to the voting records of the two senators running for president as Democrat and Republican.

Illinois' own Barack Obama, a Democrat, has missed 205 of 286 votes in the Senate from Oct. 1, 2007, through Sept. 30 - 71.6 percent.

But Republican John McCain of Arizona has missed 230 of those votes - 80.4 percent.

In general, all the senators and representatives who sought the presidency have poor voting records, from Reps. Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo to Sens. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd.

Of course, with the exception of Biden - Obama's running mate - these other one-time candidates now have fewer distractions from their congressional duties.

While all those missed votes were not as critical as the closely watched bailout measure, they still raise the question of who's minding the store while elected officials run for another office or apparently begin to settle into retirement a bit prematurely.

A good staff can take care of many constituent concerns, but no staff member can cast votes in Congress. Plus, it appears Weller's office is already winding down its constituent services.

State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, criticized Weller's missed vote on the bailout plan, saying he should resign if he is not going to do the job and let a special election be held.

However, this close to the general election, nothing could be gained from Weller's resignation.

What people in his district need is for Weller to earn his pay by showing up for votes between now and the end of his term and by being accessible to his constituents, including local government officials.

That goes for Sen. Obama, too.