If 2020 taught us nothing else, it’s that you only need to be dressed from the waist up for online meetings. 
According to MSNOW, he was being treated for depression:
Huh. It’s sad that (at least as perceived by some), society hasn’t moved much toward compassion for depression since the campaign of Eagleton, fifty years ago.
(Though at least Kean is running again).
I’m reserving my compassion for if and when he fully comes clean about his condition and how it will affect his ability to represent his constituents. Depression isn’t uncommon. Many are dealing with it. Not many have to be where “there are no cameras” for several months. I will also feel more compassion if he addresses in a meaningful (and legislative) way how almost no Americans have access to the type and duration of care he was able to get.
Who isn’t showing compassion? He’s only opened up an hour oe so ago?
Yeah, Fetterman was pretty open about his depression, right?
I think the point was that Kean may have felt unwilling to talk about why he was seeking medical treatment for months, because of general societal attitudes about depression.
Seems like a Kean problem, since at least one other elected representative, and lots of sports figures and celebrities, have been out about it.
Or, he isn’t being 100% truthful…
Yes, this.
The New York Times said
Mr. Kean, who said he was a “private person by nature,” as a way of explaining why he had not shared more earlier, said that “asking for help is not a weakness, it is a strength.”
So more likely that his private nature was the reason for his secrecy. (Although private people are perhaps not typical office holders.)
Also, he didn’t ask for help, at least not in public.
If he’s that private of a person, it’s weird, as you say, to be a public servant.
Weird, but admirable if true. We’d be better off if more politicians kept their private lives private.
I guess I agree. At least – not worse off.
I have no problem with his time off. I do have a problem with him not having repudiated endorsement by Donald Trump.
Or it may be a more severe and/or complex problem than depression. I trust him and his word about as far as I can throw him. I don’t believe he has revealed all of the details.
This isn’t about who he is sleeping with or if he is having a fight with his wife. This is about a possibly ongoing condition that kept him from doing the job he was elected to do for an extended amount of time. He’s running for reelection and asking to go back to the job with very few details.
Donald Trump is his entire platform. His father was a well respected moderate Republican who was willing to compromise across the aisle. His son is a MAGA parrot. Maybe that’s what caused his crisis. He feels like the only way to get elected is to be Trumpy but he knows it’s wrong.
When the leader of Representative Tom Kean Jr’s political party and his followers show no compassion towards others, why would you expect society to do so?
I don’t know, that’s ascribing a lot more substance to this guy than is there.
Hear! Hear!
It’s fine to claim “private life” but when something seriously affects one’s job performance, one’s employer is not out of line in needing an explanation. And in this case, the residents of New Jersey District 7 are his employers and their elected official was absent for almost four months.
“Which is why I’ll continue to vote to take access to that help away from the millions of people who need it the most.”
Yeah, if a person with a disability needs a reasonable accommodation to do their job, then they should have it. But if, even with reasonable accommodations, their condition is such that they still can’t do the job, then they need to look for another line of work. Kean’s condition is clearly such as to prevent him from being able to do his job.