Obama Invited To Address House Republican Conference

House Republicans have invited President-elect Barack Obama to speak before the entire GOP conference, hoping to set a different tone to the partisan wars of the last two years in which congressional Democrats battled President Bush.

In a letter dated Jan. 9, the Republican leadership team asked Obama to attend one of their regular meetings with the 178-member GOP conference "at your earliest convenience" after he is sworn-in as the 44th president.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[cjk002]

It's a trap!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piVnArp9ZE0

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

I would love to be a fly on the wall at that meeting. Like Daniel walking into the Lion's den, the Big O will be just fine. It will be like the fifty state strategy. You win a lot by just going there.

[iswideopen]

PE Obama, please go but watch out for the "republican booby traps". I don't trust them at all.

[lmvd3]

Does anyone else think this guy Boehner with the obvious fake tan and plastic hair, is really ugly? I can barely look at the guy. Ick.

[tel8034]

The CHANGE is beginning .........................

Note to Obama: If they offer food and/or drink, just say "no thankyou"; "I have already eaten"; "I'm not thirsty"

[XME]

Poor Boehner...it must kill him to have to make an effort to be decent to any non-Republican.

[rock2casbah]

Obama has already started making big changes in DC and not even sworn in yet, since according to the article

"Bush attended about one GOP conference meeting a year, usually during key legislative battles, but almost never attended Democratic meetings."

For all the naysayers this is what all the hoopla of CHANGE is all about. Bush and the repubs divisiveness and partisanship is on it's way out the door. Now that is how you get things done in America.

[obamagal]

I agree and I doubt we need to worry about traps. Our PE is not just an empty shirt. He'll walk in there with eyes wide open. (I know, I know - it will take a bit of getting used to having a POTUS with some brains, integrity, honesty...).

[Seattlelite]

Sounds good , but O don't eat their food nor drink their water and watch your back as you exit.

[mmgbizgirl]

John Boehner will stab him in the back in a New York minute.

[obamagal]

Undoubtedly he'd try. I think O is smarter than that and won't show his back.

[keepingfaith]

What caught my attention was a comment made by John Boehner. "Boehner said he opposes the release of the funds unless the incoming Obama administration can demonstrate the need for those funds."
Demonstrate the need to help the American people, to create jobs, to repair our nation"s infrastructure??? 2 million plus people have lost their jobs, thousands have lost their homes, thousands go hungry each day, thousands die for lack of health care. Isn't that enough? I find his comment offensive, heartless, and very disconnected from the reality of people's lives. It is disgusting that the GOP is NOW so concerned about fiscal responsibility and protecting the use of TARP funds!! They are why we are in this mess in the first place!!!!

[RTIII]

To be generous - as O might - perhaps he means he just wants to see a plan for what's going to be done with it. Frankly, I'd like to see that, too.
.

[robXdion]

Boehner is given too much weight. He's a house rep facing a Dem super-majority. Opposing Obama on policy and offering this invite is the only way he can keep his name in the paper.

[blues101]

I would hope and normally would think it's a nice and sincere gesture. but i would be way more comfortable knowing there is superb security over and beyond the usual. and that Rahm would be there to cover our president's back. I hope it is a reaching out. but i'm thinking not. i'd be terrified of being in a place full of that many R's having a "meeting".

[mcantwell]

I truly hope Boehner is serious about changing the partisin tone in Washington. I have a hard time forgetting when he called PE Obama "chicken sh*t" just a few months ago.

[Indie2008]

I haven't forgotten the Republican vitreol against President Elect Obama either, and although I'm sure the gesture is politically motivated, it is still a step forward.

[XME]

He's not serious...he'll only make an effort because he's probably finally cluing in that people are fed up with the partisanship. It's probably eating him up just to make an effort!

[Dupree]

WE need a president of all the people for a change. We are facing tremedous challenges and obstacles and I just hope that all, republicans, democrats, and independents recognize that now is not the time to hug party lines against the best interest of our country. A country divided will inevitably fall and a country united is strong.