Rep. Lamborn Says Others Played Hookie With Him

On KNUS radio's "Kelley and Company" this morning, Rep. Doug Lamborn told host Steve Kelley that he wasn't the only member of Congress to skip President Obama's SOTU speech yesterday, implying, perhaps, that he was being singled out unfairly:

The president didn't know or care if I was there. And actually I know of others who were not there. I happen to be one who said in advance I wasn't going to be there. [laughs]

I called Lamborn's office to find out whom Lamborn was thinking of. And were the other no-shows also protestors like Lamborn?

"There's no roll-call vote taken," Lamborn's Communications Director Catherine Mortensen told me. "If someone shows up or doesn't show up, there's no record of it."

She didn't know which lawmakers Lamborn had in mind, but she did tell me that she'd read press reports that Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina had considered skipping the event.

Scott was thinking about watching the speech with his brother, but he ended up attending. His idea to be a SOTU no-show was not a protest, according to local press reports.

Kelley didn't ask Lamborn how he knew that Barack Obama didn't care if he attended the SOTU, but he did ask Lamborn if he thinks he made a difference by not being there:

Lamborn said: "I did get a chance to tell people why I oppose the president so strongly... I feel better."