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On Republican refusal to offer official response to Obama speech

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Article 2 of the United States Constitution specifies that the “executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”   (No, Vice President Biden, Article 1 does not define the executive branch.)

We have just one president.  While we may not always agree with the incumbent, the same article (i.e., 2) grants him a term of four years.  And Barack Obama was elected to a just such a term.  Given that we have only one president, it always seemed a little odd that our media have long allowed the opposition party to offer a response to presidential addresses.  (Wonder if this process started in the Reagan era.)

Well, to his credit, House Speaker John Boehner declined to choose a fellow partisan to offer the Republican response and this has upset his predecessor:

Republicans also announced that they would not prepare an on-air response to the president’s proposal immediately following the speech, a decision House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said was “disrespectful.”

“Listen, this is not the State of the Union address,” Boehner said when asked Thursday why Republicans would not give an official televised response. “The American people shouldn’t be forced to watch some politician they don’t want to listen to. And frankly, most of them would rather watch the football game.”

Sorry, Nancy, it’s hardly disrespectful.  Instead, the Republican refusal honors the office of the presidency and the meaning of the federal constitution.

Comments

  1. I can remember when the leadership of the President’s party bitterly complained about the very concept of a rebuttal to a Presidential Address.

    And in-general, the opposition party’s spokesman always came-off badly.

  2. Ace has a good quip on this:

    Old and Busted: Republicans Are Disrespectful Racists For Criticizing Obama
    New Hotness: Republicans Are Disrespectful Racists For Not Criticizing Obama

  5. Obama is giving a campaign speech in order to lecture the Republicans into submission; this will not work. But Obama is looking for the spectacle anyway. Boehner wisely is outmaneuvering the politically novice Obama.

    Republicans would be wise not to show-up at all save for Speaker Boehner & majority leader, Eric Cantor.

  6. When the guy standing next to me in an elevator farts, I don’t feel a need for rebuttal. And an elevator fart carries considerably more significance than an Obama speech.

    Also, I like the way Boehner and Marsha Blackburn are bringing the CEO of Gibson Guitars as their guest.

  7. it always seemed a little odd that our media have long allowed the opposition party to offer a response to presidential addresses. (Wonder if this process started in the Reagan era.)

    I dunno. This is what I’ve found that the first Republican response to the SOTU was in 1966 by Sen. Dirkson & Rep. Ford. Whether Republicans were the first to respond to a SOTU or any other address, I don’t know.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_response_to_the_State_of_the_Union_address

  9. My hat is off to Boehner for the decision to let the President’s speech stand (or not) on it’s own merits. Nothing the GOP could say would resist the demagoguery and mendacity of the libs and the MSM. That’s why Pelosi is unhappy – the GOP for once managed to not take the bait.