How bad is Republican partisanship when it comes to President Barack Obama? How about Congressional Republicans nixing an invite to come over and view “Lincoln” with Obama?
President Obama says he’d like to socialize with Republicans, but they aren’t responding to his overtures. So which is it, a remote president or an opposition party that refuses to hang out with him?
The White House screening of Lincoln on Nov. 15 offers a bit of a counterpoint to GOP and press complaints about Obama’s aloofness. Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner were there, along with cast members Daniel Day-Lewis, James Spader, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones.
Sounds like an irresistible invitation, right? Wrong.
The only lawmakers at the screening were Democrats–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Reps. James Clyburn and John Lewis. No Republicans attended, though several were invited, according to a Democrat familiar with the guest list. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell turned down the invitation, as did Sens. Lamar Alexander, Tom Coburn, and Olympia Snowe.
Boehner may be setting something of a record for sending regrets to the White House. Though he attended at least one state dinner during the George W. Bush administration, he has turned down invitations to six hosted by Obama (Britain, South Korea, Germany, China, Mexico, and India). McConnell declined to attend the dinners for India and China, as well as a White House event celebrating his home-state University of Kentucky’s NCAA basketball championship.
I’m sure they were otherwise occupied.
And, no, folks you can’t imagine a Bob Dole or an Everett M. Dirksen or any number of Republicans who assertively opposed Democratic Presidents in the early 21st or any part of the 20th centuries racking up a record like these folks.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.