A small handful of Congress’s most childish and impudent Republicans have decided that they have better things to do tonight than to listen to the president’s ideas on how to spur job growth. South Carolina senator Jim DeMint refused to attend the joint session of Congress unless Obama writes his proposals down on paper first. Illinois representative Joe Walsh said he refuses to be a “prop” for Obama and decided to hold a forum with local small businessmen instead. And then there’s David Vitter, the family-values, prostitute-patronizing senator from Louisiana. Vitter decided not to attend the speech tonight because he wanted to watch football.
According to a couple of tweets on Tuesday, Vitter planned to watch the speech from his home, where he’s holding a get-together for the NFL season opener tonight featuring the New Orleans Saints. Far from feeling sheepish about his perplexing priorities, Vitter seemed to be boasting when he later tweeted a link to a news story about his decision to skip Obama’s speech.
But then something awful happened: That wily ol’ sonofabitch Harry Reid decided to schedule a vote on patent reform for right before Obama’s speech, and a symbolic vote of disapproval over raising the debt ceiling for immediately after, as a way to compel Vitter and the other Republican child-men to actually attend. Vitter was not pleased:
Shame on you, Harry Reid, forcing David Vitter to act like a senator when it’s clearly against his nature.
Senate votes force Vitter to skip football party, attend Obama speech [Hill]
