As you've probably seen, all but three Senate Democrats signed the letter to President Bush today calling on the president to categorically reject phase-out in the form of private accounts paid for with Social Security funds.

The three were Conrad, Feingold and Nelson of Nebraska.

Conrad and Nelson aren't much of a surprise. But, to many, Feingold was.

I checked into this and it turns out that Sen. Feingold's mother just passed away and for that reason he is currently back in Wisconsin.

After speaking with a member of the senator's staff, it seemed clear to me that there was nothing more to read into his failure to sign the letter than that he was not in Washington to sign it and is understandably busy now attending to personal matters.