State of the Bloomin’: Pelosi says no to Cantor, speech excerpts released
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) invited Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to sit next to him at the State of the Union address — but the former House Speaker says she’s already committed.
“I thank @GOPLeader for his #SOTU offer, but I invited my friend Rep. [Roscoe] Bartlett from MD yesterday & am pleased he accepted,” Pelosi tweeted.
The invitation from Cantor was made Monday evening through staffers for the two leaders, spokesman Brad Dayspring said.
The pairing would have been among the more high-profile for an event that has in recent days been compared to a school dance, as lawmakers scurry to find cross-party seatmates for the president’s annual address. Instead of the traditional party-line seating arrangement, dozens of members have planned to sit with lawmakers from the other party as a symbol of renewed civility.
At last count, 100 Congresscritters had signed on to Udall’s “bipartisan seating” idea.
BTW, if I hear the word “civility” one more time, I think I’m gonna hurl. Also, prepare for the mainstream media/pundit spin on the SOTU that Obama is turning “centrist.” In fact, you don’t have to wait – they’ve already started.
Speech excerpts as follows:
—SOTU: President Obama (full speech)
—GOP SOTU response: Rep. Paul Ryan (full speech)
—Tea Party SOTU (online) response: Rep. Michele Bachmann
For fun tonight:
—Ron Bacardi: First Annual State of the Union Drinking Game!
—Cassy Fiano is on a similar wavelength with her own SOTU drinking game.
—Americans For Tax Reform: 2011 Obama/State of the Union BINGO!
Want to watch the speech but can’t get to a TV? C-SPAN is always a safe bet for wall-to-wall online coverage.
I may or may not watch. Feel free to use this thread as an open thread to comment on the speech and the various planned responses. The speech starts at 9 ET (although the President will most likely be about 10 minutes late, as usual). Oh, and the SCOTUS Justices who won’t be in attendance tonight are: Alito, Scalia, and Thomas.
Update – 9:09 PM: I’ll be doing a bit of Tweeting on the SOTU. You can follow my tweets here.