Posted on 01/12/2016 10:31:02 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The First Lady will be featuring an empty chair as one of her guests for the State of the Union speech tonight. (It’s really rather crass to be stealing ideas from Clint Eastwood, isn’t it, Madam?) The empty chair will be joined by Syrian refugee Refaai Hamo, Paris train attack hero Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, Ryan Reyes (whose boyfriend died at San Bernardino) and Satya Nadella.
But it’s not just Obama cheerleaders in the crowd. As the Hill reports, one guest will be from a decidedly different camp.
The Kentucky clerk briefly jailed last year for refusing to hand out marriage licenses to gay couples is slated to attend President Obama’s final State of the Union address, a source has confirmed to The Hill.
Kim Davis will attend Obama’s speech Tuesday night after the Family Research Council arranged for her to be in the House audience along with her attorney Mat Staver.
The Rowan County clerk will be in the audience along with Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case legalizing gay marriage across the country, who will be a guest of President Obama.
Ms. Davis has certainly had a full dance card since she first vaulted to national attention. She’s already gotten to meet with the Pope and now she has the dubious honor of sitting through a Barack Obama speech in Washington. Of course, it’s fairly obvious what a dog and pony show this is for our nation’s politicians given that Jim Obergefell will be there as well. The pairing makes for a dream ticket in terms of the networks, though. Just think about it: every time the President says something about all of his many victories on the social justice front for gays the cameras can be ready to flash over to Davis grimacing and Obergefell fist pumping. If we’re really lucky they might even do a split screen. Oh, the drama!
It’s kind of a shame that things have gotten to the point where the guest list at these speeches is just a series of pieces of performance art to poke a finger in somebody’s eye rather than filling the seats with people who might just legitimately want to be there. Yes, I know… for the vast majority of the people we normally speak to here the obvious question is, why would you want to? But the Democrats certainly do. And I’m willing to bet that if there’s an upcoming State of the Union given by a President Cruz or Trump or Rubio there are a fair number of folks here who wouldn’t mind going. Trust me, I’ve been to my share of rubber chicken events in DC and at various stops along the campaign trail elsewhere. Sometimes it can be a chore, but it’s also an experience to have at least once, providing a chance to see (and yes.. be seen) with other folks in the game. Also, some of the after parties can be pretty good at times.’
In fact, in the end, it’s not really about the speech at all. If what you really cared about was hearing what the President had to say you could do so from the comfort of your own home on any of dozens of network and cable channels or on the radio in your car. It’s far more spectacle than substance. But the media owns the show now and the guest list is strictly serving the purpose of building a “highlight” reel from an even that will be drearily short of actual highlights.
I’m sure Zero will go out of his way to make her feel unwelcome. That’s just the kind of human being he is.
Article doesn’t say whether Kim will be the Obama’s chosen guest, or accompanying some other Congressman et al.
i still dont get how she was a registered demonrat?
oh well.
i wonder what she thinks about abortion? being against both usually goes hand in hand.
What’s the over/under on # of USSC Justices appearing?
I am not too surprised that the empty suit would have an empty chair.
Article doesn’t say whether Kim will be the Obama’s chosen guest, or accompanying some other Congressman et al.I would have thought she'd be sitting in Ted Cruz's "I stand with Kim Davis" seat.
Article doesn’t say whether Kim will be the Obama’s chosen guest, or accompanying some other Congressman et al.I would have thought she'd be sitting in Ted Cruz's "I stand with Kim Davis" seat.
This is so obscure, I had to look her up.
Meh. Never understood why she thought she could put her name on licenses for possible adulterers, divorcees, or those who engaged in premarital sex but not homosexuals...
Kim Davis IS a Democrat.
Hasn’t this woman suffered enough.... now she has to sit through obammy giving SOTU speech?
One good reason why, is that legally (sorry to bring up tedious legalities, but legally) KY no longer has a marriage statute. That is, it is quite likely that nobody can be legally married in KY. This is because the USSC struck down their statute in Obergefell, but the legislature never replaced it with another statute. Therefore KY has no authority to issue a license to anybody.
Kim Davis brought this out early in her conflict, when she emphasized that she was sworn to carry out her duties as authorized by KY statutes, and the statutes now gave her no such authorization.
That language kinda got swamped by the later focus on her personal moral and religious objections, but n fact KY to this day does not have a legal definition of marriage.
Rowan County KY is strongly Democrat. Winning the (D) primary there is basically winning the election. Therefore she was registered (D).
I agreed with that stance - but she didn’t stick to it...
It could still be pushed if somebody had strategic sense the tssticular fortitude to stick with it.
You have to wonder how many other states still haven’t reconfigured their legal system to update the Supreme Court’s 5-4 redefinition of marriage and made the changes to forms, procedures, etc. to institute the changes.
I think this is so ironic. Clint Eastwood featured Obama as an empty chair at the republican convention, and now Obama is inviting the chair to the SOTU!
Oh, exactly. My own state of TN is in that category as far as I know, and surely at least a dozen others. I could make a helluva states-based challenge if somebody wanted to pick it up and run with it.
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