Obama's congressional companions

Traveling to Tucson with the President
Aboard Air Force One with  President Obama later this afternoon will be House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi along with the five Republicans of Arizona’s delegation: Jeff Flake, Trent Franks, Paul Gosar, Ben Quayle, and Dave Schweikert. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Attorney General Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano will also attend. Well, that's a planeload. Is the Speaker not attending? Is there a reason for that or was he not invited to join the President on ...

Washington Delegation in Tucson
Several members of Congress, many of them from Arizona, traveled with President Obama on Wednesday to Tucson for a memorial service for those slain in the Assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Traveling with the President on Air Force One, were: Justice Anthony Kennedy; Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; Janet Napolitano, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader. Also traveling on Air Force One were members...

Abdication of duty
Abdication of Duty by digby So much for Bipartisan healing: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) turned down an offer by President Barack Obama to travel on Air Force One to Arizona for a memorial service on behalf of the Victims of Saturday’s shooting, a decision that has upset some Democrats. Boehner is instead scheduled to attend a reception on Wednesday night on behalf of Maria Cino, a former top House GOP aide who is seeking the Republican National Committee chairmanship. Boehner is backing C...

Pelosi on Hand When Giffords Opens Eyes
TUCSON— Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, was in Gabrielle Giffords‘ Hospital room when she opened her eyes for the first time since being shot in the head last Saturday, Obama Administration and congressional aides said. Mrs. Pelosi, along with two other Democrats, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, were in the room, shortly after President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama finished their visit to the hospital, before...

Obama Preps for Tucson Speech
ABC News reports: Per sources, the president worked throughout the night on the Speech. Its goal will be to administer to those mourning, honor those impacted by the shootings - including the Victims, the heroes, and all those grieving in Tucson and beyond. Another goal will be to lift the nation up in this moment, not sully it with politics, thus shrinking what this moment stands for. Most recent guidance is the speech will run between 10-15 minutes. Three branches of the Federal Government...

What Obama Will Say in Tucson
Per sources, the president worked throughout the night on the Speech. Its goal will be to administer to those mourning, honor those impacted by the shootings - including the Victims, the heroes, and all those grieving in Tucson and beyond. Another goal will be to lift the nation up in this moment, not sully it with politics, thus shrinking what this moment stands for. Most recent guidance is the speech will run between 10-15 minutes. Three branches of the Federal Government will travel wit...

Gillibrand To Tucson With Obama (Updated)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office just announced the junior senator has boarded Air Force One to travel with President Obama to Tucson, Az. to attend tonight’s memorial service for the Victims of last Saturday’s shooting. Gillibrand, who has spoken often about her friendship with Rep. Gabby Giffords, will join other (unnamed in this Press Release) members of Congress at the University of Arizona Medical Center to visit the congressman’s husband, staff, and other Victims a...

Nancy Pelosi was in room when Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes
Source: Politico Nancy Pelosi was in room when Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, all close friends of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were in the Hospital room with the Arizona Democrat when she opened her eyes for the first time since she was shot in the head Saturday during a rampage that killed six in Tucson, Ariz. In a Speech at a University of Arizona service for the Victims of the shootings, President ...

Ben Quayle To Weird Out Barack Obama On Air Force One
Look who gets to go on the big-boy plane! There are few ways to bring more Discomfort to the people of Arizona than forcing them to hug that wide-eyed toolbag. Ben Quayle is probably in the air right now, locating an old Snickers bar he left on the plane when his idiot father was in office and eating it in front of everyone to gross them out. [Halperin]...

Heroes, humility and healing in Tucson
This day started out on a discordant note with a tin-ear video from Sarah Palin. An eight-minute defensive message that pointed fingers while demanding that fingers not be pointed at her. Her tone was wrong. Her words were ill-chosen. Her message ill-timed for a nation in need of healing. Thankfully, hers was not the last voice to be heard today. Speaker John Boehner (D-Ohio) spoke on the floor of the House. So, too, did House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Both struck the statesman-li...

Call for bipartisan State of Union seating
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said Wednesday the House and Senate should abandon the custom of partisan seating arrangements for the State of the Union address. In a message posted on his Web site, Udall published the text of a letter to his colleagues in which he urged House and Senate leaders to end the longstanding custom of Republicans sitting with Republicans and Democrats sitting with Democrats when the president delivers the annual address. Udall called the seatin...

Arizona Republicans Will Fly to Tucson With Obama
Rep. Jeff Flake and other GOP Arizona House Members will join President Barack Obama on a flight to Tucson to attend the memorial service Wednesday for the Shooting Victims. A mix of Arizona Republican lawmakers and senior administration officials will accompany President Barack Obama on his flight to Tucson to attend Wednesday’s memorial service. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will join Arizona GOP Reps. Jeff Flake, Trent Franks, Ben Quayle, Paul Gosar and David Schweikert ...

Gillibrand Heads To Tucson With President
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office said she has boarded Air Force One with President Obama this afternoon to travel to Tucson, Ariz., to attend tonight’s memorial service for the Victims of Saturday’s shootings. According to the White House pool report, Gillibrand was joined on the trip by some House colleagues, the First Lady, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Homeland Security Security Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona Governor, and Democ...

Obama: 'Gabby Opened Her Eyes For The First Time' (VIDEO)
In his Speech tonight at a Tucson memorial service for the Victims of last Saturday's shooting, President Obama announced that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) had opened her eyes for the first time today. Obama said Giffords, who is in the intensive care unit recovering from a gunshot wound and Brain Surgery, opened her eyes for the first time just after he and First Lady Michelle Obama visited her. "So I can tell you she knows we are here she knows we love her and she knows we are rooting fo...

Obama visits Giffords, AZ shooting survivors
President Obama swooped into Arizona Wednesday night and immediately rushed to the Hospital to visit wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ahead of his address to a nation in mourning. The President invited a bi-partisan coalition of lawmakers to join him aboard Air Force One for the trip to Tucson for a memorial for the Victims gunned down in the Saturday Assassination attempt on Giffords. Obama is moving to draw the country together amidst the partisan rancor that has engulfed the political landsc...

Gillibrand Travels to Tucson With Obama
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is on board Air Force One, traveling to Tucson with President Obama, according to a statement that was just emailed by her office. Gillibrand and Congresswoman Gabrielle (Read more...) ...

Obama To Become Consoler-In-Chief
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading the nation in mourning, President Barack Obama flew to Arizona Wednesday to pay tribute to the six people killed in the weekend shootings and to the fighting spirit of wounded lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the first Assassination attempt on a member of Congress in decades. Searching for the right tone, Obama sought to console the country, not dissect its politics. Obama and his wife, Michelle, headed for a nighttime service in Tucson with a bipartisa...

Democrats respond to McDonnell's State of the Commonwealth Address
House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong provided the official response to Gov. Bob McDonnell's Speech for Virginia Democrats. "While he talks a pretty good game about Small Government and cutting spending, his legislative agenda suggests that he has not gotten the point made in the last election when it comes to Deficit spending," Armstrong said in taped remarks. Armstrong touted Democratic priorities of Job Creation and education improvements and transportation, which happen to be McDonnell's ...

Ethics Committee debates hiring outside counsel for Waters investigation
The leading Republican and Democrat on the House Ethics Committee are debating on whether to hire outside counsel to handle the investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), according to a source familiar with the internal committee proceedings. The committee considered hiring an outside counsel late last year after several turbulent months filled with missteps, partisan infighting and accusations that the attorneys on the case mishandled it. With Republicans now in the majority, new ethics ...

Highlights from Obama's speech at Tucson memorial
President Barack Obama speaks at a memorial service for the Victims of Saturday's shootings at McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, in Tucson, Ariz. "I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow." "Our hearts are broken by their sudden passing. Our hearts are broken — and yet our hearts also have reason for fullness." "Heroism is here, in the hearts of so many of our fel...

President Obama Speaks at the Tucson Memorial Service Complete Video 1/12/11
Visit MSNBC.com for breaking news, world news, and news about The Economy Here is complete video of President Barack Obama’s remarks tonight at a “Memorial Service” in Tucson, Arizona in honor of the Victims of the Tucson Mass Shooting that took place this past Saturday. Obama spoke for just over half-an-hour, interrupted repeatedly by applause and cheering from the crowd gathered at the University of Arizona. Obama called for unity, and for a more civil public discourse, but...

Tucson Memorial Service: Obama on God, broken hearts, hopes of a nation
 An eloquent and at times emotional President Barack Obama spoke of God, broken hearts and the hopes of a nation Wednesday evening. Speaking at the Tucson Memorial Service for the Arizona Shooting Victims Obama spoke of moral imagination and the healing of the American spirit. Last Saturday, outside of a strip mall in Tucson Arizona, Jared Lee Loughner killed six people, including Federal Judge John Roll and nine year old  Christina Taylor Green, and wounded more than a dozen, includin...

Giffords' Friends in Room When She Opened Eyes
Like this Story? Share it: President Barack Obama's entourage, including congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), follows him and First Lady Michelle Obama to the University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 12, 2011. Pelosi was apparently with Rep. Giffords when she opened her eyes for the first time Wednesday. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) (CBS) President Obama announced in an unscripted moment during his Speech Wednesday at the "Together We Thrive: Tucson and America" memorial, that Rep. ...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting
President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when we ...

House Pays Tribute to Shooting Victims
WASHINGTON—The House of Representatives paid tribute to one of its own Wednesday with a resolution honoring Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the 19 others shot Saturday in Arizona. "Today we are called to mourn," Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said as he opened six hours of debate on a resolution honoring the six who died and the 14 injured in Tucson. "These are difficult hours for our country." The House took up its resolution on a day of tributes for Ms. Giffords, who remains hosp...