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Trump, Listen to Pelosi: End the State of the Union
On Wednesday, the new House Speaker asked President Trump to postpone his State of the Union address until the government shutdown is resolved — or simply to submit it in writing. For once, I agree with Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi’s stated concern is that the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security isn’t currently being funded. Understaffed security means that they can’t protect the President. (From House Democrats, presumably.) Anti-Trump hysteria already killed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner; if it also kills the pretentious pageantry of the SOTU, all the better.
The Constitution mandates that the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Thomas Jefferson looked at a formal address as a “speech from the throne” that reminded him of the old British monarchy. He abandoned the practice, opting to submit it in writing. That tradition remained until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson, the worst president ever, “stunned official Washington” by delivering an address before a joint session of Congress.
Fast-forward to today, where the State of the Union is a hybrid of royal address and third-rate Oscars ceremony. I don’t need to know which congressperson shakes the President’s hand, how many times Ruth Bader Ginsburg nods off, or who Amy Klobuchar is wearing.
President Trump, submit the State of the Union in writing. And do it in crayon so even politicians can follow along.
Published in Politics
I absolutely agree. The current State of the Union show is absurd and unhelpful.
I respectfully remind the author that we do have a code of conduct here at Ricochet…
I agree, Jon. Good idea – even if Nancy thought of it.
On Wilson being the worst: He was certainly pretty bad, but the two preceding the Civil War one would not bring home to Mother!
The State of the Union should be written in a letter, wrapped around a brick that is thrown through a window of the Capitol Building in the wee hours of the morning.
…At least, that’s how I’d deliver it if I were President (God forbid).
I do not agree. I love watching Nancy sitting stiff as a board, sour faced, using her tongue to clean her false teeth, when she isn’t clenching them and trying hard not to get up and swat the President for the assiduity of becoming President.
Yah, but we all know Trump can’t write anything longer than 140 characters. And even those are riddled with third grader levels of misspellings and grammatical errors.
I propose that he should give the speech, but he shouldn’t be allowed to use a teleprompter and be forced to recite it all from memory. Any time he makes an error a stern nun will hit him with a ruler. Any time a congressman interrupts another stern nun hits them with a ruler. After he is done the Democrats get to have some one stand up and deliver a 10 minute rebuttal right there while Trump has to sit and watch it. Again without a teleprompter and with a nun hitting them when they make a mistake. Then for good measure the president, congress, and the supreme court justices have to each write by hand a three page essay telling us what they have learned. To be graded by those same nuns. Anyone who gets a grade lower than a C is immediately removed from office. Spelling and penmanship count.
I’m currently re-watching The West Wing. Toby Ziegler had a really good bit of dialogue about the State Of The Union address.
I don’t remember the exact line, but it went something like: “He will from time to time provide Congress with information. The President could fulfill his constitutional duty by buying Congress a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.”
The drinking games are fun though. Oh well, he could just tweet it.
I wonder if the reaction to Chuck and Nancy’s latest rebuttal played into her thinking.
”Wait. If he gives a speech, we’re going to have to send someone out to respond . . . You know what? We should just scrap the whole thing.”
Why did Pelosi ask Trump to postpone? She is Speaker of the House and Presidents address Congress at the invitation of Congress. The decision is hers not his.
I loathe the pretentious pomposity of the SOTU event. I would love Trump to put a stake through its heart. Send it in writing.
IF … that’s a big if … the SOTU needs to go by the wayside (certainly the question can be debated), it is without any shadow of the doubt that the year that it should happen is not 2019. At a bare minimum, the optics of allowing 78-year old Nancy Pelousy to dictate terms to a sitting President is vomit inducing.
Because no matter what you think about her she has some political instincts. I am not aware of the House generally refusing to allow the President to give a State of the Union. Pelosi cancelling this would look petty. They don’t “win” the government shutdown by make it look like the Democrats are unreasonable and creating/exacerbating the problem.
It is really a silly pep-rally with people sitting around trying to figure out, “Do we clap, do we not clap? Do we stand, do we not stand?” So I’m good with getting rid of it and not just for this year.
But Pelosi’s real concern is security? So, she doesn’t want a joint session unless they have a secure border around the Capitol? With armed guards protecting her?
The terms are hers to dictate. He delivers the speech at her invitation.
No, Pelosi’s real concern is being exposed for the duplicitous harridan she is.
She wants a scenario where the President is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Just like everyday with this media/socialist democrat governmental complex … The headline to report that Donald Trump walks on water becomes Donald Trump Can’t Swim!.
If he holds the SOTU they will scream and blame him for putting dear Nancy ‘at risk’. If he cancels they will scream and blame him for something that they already have written for publication by the NYT, ComPost, CNN, et. al. Leni Reifenstahl would blush at the audacious hubris and vanity of these DNC house organs.
Her disinviting the President would not move the political needle a whit. The Resistance would applaud her for refusing to normalize him, the Trumpists would insist it was the President’s plan all along and Nancy doesn’t understand how to play 3D chess, and the rest of us would say “eh…” and forget about it.
Prediction:
No matter what President Trump does, democrats will scream, attack, destroy things and go all …
I don’t agree. If they all agreed to move it or cancel it I thing most everyone would say “eh” and forget about it. If Trump became the first President, since this stopped being a written document, to be told he could not deliver a State of the Union, I think that would move the needle.
Well, that’s a safe prediction.
Congress is more than just the House of Representatives. Don’t the president of the senate and the senate majority leader get a say too?
The Senate can invite the President to address the Senate from the Senate chamber.
I cannot see any constitutional reason why the Speaker of the Senate couldn’t invite the President to address the Senate.
They’d have to bring in folding chairs.
Trump should submit a written SotU and then have a Thunderdome rally! Rush Limbaugh has offered to MC the event. Let’s have a spectacle!!
She already invited him last week. Now she’s trying to disinvite him.
The address happens in the house chamber, though. There are more chairs.
Well, other than that there is not Speaker of the Senate.