He will be hosting a party for the New Orleans Saints game instead
WASHINGTON -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., will not attend President Barack Obama's economic address tonight in favor of hosting a Saints-Packers watch party with friends and family back home in Metairie. He is one of five members, all Republicans, who are planning to skip the president's address to a Joint Session of Congress.
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U.S. Senator David Vitter welcomes United States President Barack Obama as he arrived at Louis Armstrong Airport in Kenner, Louisiana on June 4, 2010. Vitter will not attend the president's speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday evening."I have a Saints party ... and I am absolutely going to be there for the big game, kickoff of the Saints and the whole NFL," Vitter said Wednesday on a Fox News web news show. He said he expected the president's speech would be "more political than substantive."
Vitter said he will watch the speech on television before the 7:30 p.m. kickoff of the NFL season featuring the Saints against the Green Bay Packers, a match-up of the previous two Super Bowl winners.
Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, who was the only House Republican to turn down an invitation by President Obama to visit the White House June 1 to discuss the deficit crisis, plans to attend Thursday's address, spokesman Millard Mulé said. Louisiana's seven other congressional members also plan to attend.
Those members who announced that they will skip the speech are Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Reps. Paul Broun, R-Ga., Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill. and Ron Paul, R-Texas. Broun said he will watch the speech from his office, just as he did for the State of the Union address in February and "tweet" his comments to constituents.
Unlike with Landry, who said skipping the House GOP meeting with the president was to avoid wasting his time being "lectured to by a president whose failed policies have put our children and grandchildren in a huge burden of debt, " Vitter took a much less strident approach, referring mainly to his love for the Saints.
"As a fanatic (Saints fan), I have my priorities," Vitter joked.
Still, Norm Ornstein, the veteran political analyst for the American Enterprise Institute, said skipping a presidential speech "is just another example of the debasement of our politics and our institutions."
"I simply cannot recall a time in the past when lawmakers openly gave the finger to the president of the United States on a huge issue like jobs," Ornstein said. "It is frankly depressing."
Jonathan Tilove can be reached at jtilove@timespicayune.com or 202.450.1404. Bruce Alpert can be reached at balpert@timespicayune.com, or 202.450.1406.
