Here’s a side of the State of the Union speech you don’t get to see on television: Every year, early on the day of the address, lawmakers begin staking out seats along the center aisle of the House chamber. If the need arises to leave for a moment as the hours wear on, they’ll drape a suit jacket or a hometown newspaper over the back of the chair to hold claim to that precious bit of real estate.
The goal of all that waiting is a presidential handshake, maybe an autograph on a copy of the speech – and a fleeting moment of television exposure before an audience that last year was nearly half the size of the Super Bowl’s.
Capitol Hill veterans have a nickname for the ritual. In a family newspaper, it probably should be paraphrased as “Rump-Kissers’ Alley.”
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