Photo courtesy of the UK Daily Mail
Have you ever had the President offer to speak before your organization? And if he did, would you turn him down?
John Boehner now has the dubious honor of having done exactly that after he turned down President Obama’s request to address a joint session of Congress this Wednesday.
Betty K. Koed, associate historian with the Senate pointed out the lack of historical precedent for the rebuff.
“The Senate Historical Office knows of no instance in which Congress refused the president permission to speak before a joint session of Congress.”
Why the snub?
The President’s original time slot was in conflict with the first scheduled debatebetween the eight qualifying GOP hopefuls.
White House officials counter that, “the debate was never really an issue,” and agreed to reschedule for Thursday, September 8th.
The incident has further shaken public confidence in Washington’s ability to work beyond partisan gridlock.
David Rothkopf, a former Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration said,
“This childish gamesmanship regarding timing reconfirms to the world that Washington is a sandbox full of petulant children who don’t play well together.”
