Obama’s Super Bowl Party: Should Pat Toomey Attend?

posted at 5:22 pm on February 4, 2011 by Matt Lewis

President Obama will host an eclectic crowd to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers square off on Sunday.

As ABC News reported,

among the usual guests, including members of Congress, Cabinet Members and White House staff are J-Lo and Marc Anthony, the First Lady’s Office confirmed today.

Some members of Congress and their families, most of whom have a particular allegiance to their home state’s team, were also invited.

Those members of Congress who have so far RSVP-ed are the Senators from Pennsylvania – Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and Democrat Sen. Bob Casey. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wisc) and  State Rep Rafael Anchia (D) from Dallas, TX will also attend.

This, of course, raises a couple questions…

First, will J.Lo — who can’t seem to say “no” to anybody on American Idol this season — be rooting for a team?  (My guess is she won’t be able to bring herself to root against either side).

More importantly, is this a smart move for newly-elected Republican Senator Pat Toomey?

Last year, Rep. Joseph Cao was the lone Republican to attend Obama’s Super Bowl Party.  (That was, perhaps, the highlight of his career).

Cao, of course, wasn’t just the only Republican to attend Obama’s Super Bowl party (in fairness, he is from Louisiana and the Saints did win the Super Bowl) — he was also the only House Republican to vote with Obama on health care reform.

… Rep. Cao then went on to lose his re-election.  (Cao was reportedly surprised and ‘hurt’ when Obama supported his Democratic opponent).  Is Toomey in danger of going down the same road?

My guess is that Toomey is merely attempting to represent his state, and to advance the cause of civility in politics.  I can’t imagine Toomey, who was formerly a U.S. Rep. and head of The Club for Growth, would be easily seduced by Obama’s hospitality. What is more, unlike Cao last year, Toomey isn’t up for re-election this year, nor does he represent such a Democratic-leaning district.

On the other hand, prior to his election, Toomey did say he would have voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court — and that he would have voted to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

So who knows what the future may hold.  Maybe Obama’s charm offensive will some day result in persuading Pennsylvania’s newest senator to cross party lines on a key vote?

*** Special thanks to Ed and Allah for letting me guest blog this week!  Feel free to check out my Politics Daily blog and please do follow me on Twitter.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Related Posts:

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Comment pages: 1 2

Been to many TEA party rallies, have you? Or are you merely engaging in rectal speak?

As usual…

JohnGalt23 on May 24, 2013 at 1:46 PM

As I just posted HotairLib has their whole head up their six o clock.

hamradio on May 24, 2013 at 2:43 PM

Who wrote the speech? Or are you just praising the messenger?

mixplix on May 24, 2013 at 2:57 PM

MSNBC consensus: Obama’s speech was historic, amazing, “one of the best of his presidency”

Connect the dots: journolist meeting by invitation only at the White House on, what Tuesday?, “big”speech by Obama on Thursday, lame stream media fawning over speech on Friday. Who would have seen that coming, huh?

parke on May 24, 2013 at 2:58 PM

They need the “war on terror” in order to further erode our Constitutional freedoms and to deflect criticism from the administration’s and Federal government’s ongoing corruption.

They are just trying to massage it so that they don’t offend the Muslims, international Libtards and their own sensibilities anymore than necessary.

A few Muslim terrorists here and there are quite expendable to this Administration despite their sympathies for them. These drone attacks also do much deflect any potential criticism that the Administration is weak in dealing with such matters.

Dr. ZhivBlago on May 24, 2013 at 2:59 PM

MSNBC is nothing but a left wing propaganda machine serving their master, Obama.

rplat on May 24, 2013 at 3:07 PM

Nobel Peace Prize that he totally earned a mere nine months into his presidency? Yeah, that one.

I believe that he was officially nominated 10 days after he was sworn in. Wow! The WON really worked long hours that week and a half to earn that POS medal. During those ten days he ordered NO DRONE STRIKES to keep his peaceful record clean.

fred5678 on May 24, 2013 at 3:22 PM

Obama: Don’t worry about that Ben Ghazi guy. I killed Bin Laden, and Bush didn’t!

And Obummer still wants to close Gitmo? Good luck with that–not even Upchuck Schumer was willing to hold trials in New York!

Steve Z on May 24, 2013 at 3:24 PM

They need the “war on terror” in order to further erode our Constitutional freedoms and to deflect criticism from the administration’s and Federal government’s ongoing corruption.

They just changed the definition of terrorist. They used to be jihadis from the Middle East–now they’re Minutemen in Arizona and Tea Partiers in Ohio.

Steve Z on May 24, 2013 at 3:29 PM

…bromides about what we’re told are President Foreign Policy’s miraculous yet still oddly unmaterialized abilities to move us drastically closer to world peace.

Erika, sometimes your writing shows signs of rivaling even the Master of Snark himself, Allahpundit. Good work!

KS Rex on May 24, 2013 at 3:45 PM

I love how crazy Al invoked the Nobel Peace Prize in praise of a speech that spoke about dropping bombs on people’s head. Maybe it was the “fewer” bombs than before that raised this to historic levels.

Do they even know or care that they are morons.

marnes on May 24, 2013 at 3:46 PM

His speech made less sense than Bluto’s Animal House Speech and was far less entertaining. Nothing less than base rallying time. Never thought I would say this, but Code Pink was the best part.

DDay on May 24, 2013 at 4:01 PM

Sperling posted this at the Examiner on May 23 about this “historic speech of Obysmal’s:

During his foreign policy speech Thursday afternoon, President Obama warned that domestic terrorism would increase in the modern age of the Internet.

“[T]his threat is not new,” Obama said. “But technology and the Internet increase its frequency and lethality.”

Obama warned Americans that materials on the Internet could influence people to commit terrorist acts.

“Today, a person can consume hateful propaganda, commit themselves to a violent agenda and learn how to kill without leaving their home,” he said.

To combat domestic terrorism, Obama reminded Americans that it was important to reach out to Muslim communities.

“The best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim American community — which has consistently rejected terrorism — to identify signs of radicalization and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence,” he said. “And these partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family.”

You see, we are just not working hard enough to “work with the Muslim American community” who are a “fundamental part of the American family.” Watch out, too, because Obysmal is again trying to limit the impact of the Internet.

onlineanalyst on May 24, 2013 at 4:22 PM

That Chris Hayes is a bit of a twink, isn’t he?

onlineanalyst on May 24, 2013 at 4:25 PM

Obama apparently gave two speeches yesterday and I watched the other one.

myiq2xu on May 24, 2013 at 5:03 PM

Comment pages: 1 2