Chaffetz Frets On Twitter Over State Of The Union Seat Date, Need For Corsage

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was feeling a tad unpopular on his plane ride from Utah to Washington on Monday. With just a day until Obama's State of the Union address, he still hadn't found a Democrat to sit with as part of a symbolic bipartisan seating gesture for the event.

"So I don't have a date to SOTU. Oh, how it is to be the ugly conservative. I see Rep. Issa is 'going with' Rep. Towns. Towns was choice 1," Chaffetz wrote on Twitter. His office told HuffPost that he writes all of his own tweets. "He's on a plane right now and he's just tweeting away," an aide said.

Chaffetz shot down an idea from The Salt Lake Tribune's Thomas Burr, who suggested via Twitter that Chaffetz flank Towns' other side. "I am not sitting to the left of him. No way," Chaffetz tweeted.

In a flurry of 14 tweets in about 45 minutes, he also made a few jokes about whether he'd be required to bring flowers ("the whole flowers thing has me worried," he tweeted) and speculated on whom he could sit with. "If I sit with a RINO, does that count? Better not get stuck with Rep Weiner! Perhaps the First Lady needs a date?"

Unfortunately for Chaffetz, Michelle Obama will be sitting with Daniel Hernandez, an intern who helped save the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) after she was shot in Tucson earlier this month, and the family of Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old who was killed in the same shooting.

Weiner, meanwhile, will be attending the address with fellow New York Rep. Peter King (R). When a Twitter user informed Chaffetz that Weiner was already sitting with King, he replied, "that would be the odd couple of the night," assuming the user meant Weiner would sit with the other GOP Rep. King, Steve King of Iowa.

In the end, though, Chaffetz found his match: Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, said Chaffetz is welcome to join his neighbors from Colorado for the address. "I'll be sitting with the R & D CO delegation, but u can join us, UT is a neighboring state!" Polis tweeted.

"Thanks, neighbor," Chaffetz replied.

Comments

[OutAtFirst]

03:23 PM on 01/25/2011

Chaffetz is a stain. Go listen to him speak when he thinks he's among only supporters and you'll know what I mean. Bipartisanship is not even in his vocabulary.

[trish333]

01:05 PM on 01/25/2011

LOL. Don't take it personally Congressman, there just aren't enough Democrats in the House to go around this year.

[StopMakingSense2]

02:24 PM on 01/25/2011

Give it a couple of years. When he can't find any legislation let alone a date he will be gone...

[GraniteSkyline]

11:57 AM on 01/25/2011

You don't have to bring flowers--unless you want to get lucky. You betcha!

[GonzoFactor]

11:49 AM on 01/25/2011

"Oh, how it is to be the ugly conservative." You chose your principles, your conduct, your moral bankruptcy, so quit whining, even tongue-in-cheek. The only person you have to blame is the one you see in the mirror in the morning.

[Henk]

11:44 AM on 01/25/2011

Hmm, I wonder who the lucky guy will be. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[ThinkCreeps]

11:00 AM on 01/25/2011

He's absolutely right - that is not just the ugly face of capitalism, but the butt-ugly face.

[hrc04]

10:03 AM on 01/25/2011

Probably can't find a date because you insist on packin' heat.

[HellerHighwater]

12:28 PM on 01/25/2011

What a scary, delusional world of dangerous, tax money wasting brown people these guys must think they live in.

I'm a middle-aged, urban, white guy and have not ONCE felt the need to even own a gun.

[bradenton]

09:46 AM on 01/25/2011

When was Alfred E. Newman elected to Congress?

[RJ2500]

09:05 AM on 01/25/2011

Well, he's from Utah, so he can't bring his friend Tom as his date. Have to keep that hidden.

[Clevelandinwi]

08:47 AM on 01/25/2011

Boy, they do crawl out of the woodwork on a newsless day, don't they?

[stallrocket]

08:39 AM on 01/25/2011

Is everybody in the GOP a "rising star"? It sure seems that way.

[ArkayMI]

09:12 AM on 01/25/2011

No. They are just 'shooting stars' who will end up as dull rocks (meteorites) once they fall to the ground.

[newtom]

10:09 AM on 01/25/2011

Of course they are... just ask any one of them.

[jackthecommentor]

08:22 AM on 01/25/2011

I guess his Bette Midler Blow-Up doll is out of the question! Cher is available, for the "right" price, (pun intended) or how about Bono? They could have fun counting the missing funds after the show!!

[RebelSoul]

06:45 AM on 01/25/2011

There is nothing with being gay Rep. Chaffetz, oh wait your a Republican. Whoever your "date" is, you better not pull them from an airport bathroom, because they will also be Republican.

[Plurabelle06]

06:38 AM on 01/25/2011

I would prefer he sat with his own kind. The gesture is supposed to symbolize actual feelings that obviously aren't there. He can't even get through his tweets without insulting moderate members of his own party with the RINO comment. Screw him.

[dragonmaster]

05:41 AM on 01/25/2011

Conservatives/republicans T Party ----they can usually only date their own ilk- their views are something out of 1850, or how about 1750-- beyond regressive. They are rigid, inflexible, and their views on 21st Century America are ridiculous. Its like visiting the Plantation, trying to revive that sorry part of our history, of the Gilded Age Mansion Parties in Newport RI, Circa 1885, when they had 8 year olds working in sweatshops 12 hours a day for 5 cents an hour.