Petty. Predictable, but petty. And I reiterate my point from the last post: Why didn’t she frame her objection this way from the start? “Security” was always a dumb, unbelievable reason.

Wasting no time, Pelosi says no thanks to trump pic.twitter.com/OVL7XpezvL

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 23, 2019

Is he going to show up at the House on the 29th anyway? The odds of him rolling up to the Capitol in the presidential limo, opening the door, and stepping out as the beginning of “Welcome to the Jungle” begins to play from a loudspeaker can’t be less than 75 percent. (A Twitter pal suggests “Thunderstruck” instead. That’s the other 25 percent.)

Besides, nothing short of a brawl between Capitol Police and the Secret Service as Trump tries to barge into the locked House chamber will suffice for America’s favorite new drama.

I had the thought that he might show up on the 29th, ask all House Republicans to be there when he does, and then ask in person for the right to speak. That won’t work, though, unless there are enough Democrats in the chamber to form a quorum. And there probably won’t be; Pelosi will tell her caucus to stay away.

So we might end up with a scenario where Trump shows up, walks in, asks to speak, and … no one really knows how to handle it. If there are no Democrats there to object and House Republicans usher him up to the podium to speak, what happens? No one’s arresting the president for disrupting House business.

The flaw in the big showstopping “Trump shows up and speaks anyway” scenario, though, is that if anything goes wrong — if the chamber is locked and no one will open it, if the mics are cut, etc etc — then it would screw up his opportunity to speak to the public promptly at 9. What does he do if he hits a snag, go back to the White House and speak a half-hour later? Plus, the risk of embarrassment is way, way too high. Imagine POTUS showing up at the House chamber, finding the door locked, and just wandering around confused for a few minutes looking for a way in with camera crews following him as the entire country watches. The laughter would last a hundred years.

His best bet if he doesn’t want to do it from the White House is to do it from the Capitol steps with House Republicans behind him. Make a point of showing the public how petty Pelosi is by showcasing the fact that he wasn’t allowed into the building to address the people.

Actually, another Twitter pal makes a good point. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution reads:

He 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; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper…

If Trump shows up at the House next Tuesday and orders it into session due to an “extraordinary” crisis in border security, what then? You can anticipate the reaction if he does, though: Not only is it an awful precedent, but if border security is in an “extraordinary” state, why doesn’t he just declare a national emergency and fund the wall with Pentagon money? And can POTUS really “convene” Congress when it’s … already in session? If it was adjourned, that would be a different matter.

Here’s Trump and Kevin McCarthy making hay of Pelosi’s decision.

President Trump responds to @SpeakerPelosi not considering Concurrent Resolution to have him come to House on January 29 to deliver State of the Union: "I'm not surprised. It's really a shame what's happening with the Democrats. They've become radicalized." #sotu pic.twitter.com/IVahs9aHOH

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 23, 2019

Retweet if you agree that the State of the Union should proceed as planned. I just signed and submitted a resolution that would permit President Trump to deliver his #SOTU address in the Capitol on January 29th. pic.twitter.com/yPn152cIV9

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) January 23, 2019