Sen. Udall Calls for Mixed Seating at State of the Union
Politico reports:
Can’t we all just get along?
Sen. Mark Udall wants Republicans and Democrats to sit next to each other at President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech - rather than on opposite sides of the chamber as it the usual practice - in “a symbolic gesture of unity rather than division.”
The Colorado Democrat said the traditional partisan seating in the House chamber is “an arrangement that has become a negative symbol of the divisions in Congress.”
In a letter to strong>House and Senate leaders from both parties<, Udall didn’t reference the Tucson shootings but noted that as “the tenor and debate surrounding our politics has grown ever more corrosive.” He said seating the two parties together for the Jan. 25 nationally televised speech would be an important symbolic gesture for the Congress to make to the nation.
“Beyond custom, there is no rule or reason that on this night we should emphasize divided government, separated by party, instead of being seen united as a country,” Udall said.
Members of Congress often applaud along partisan lines during State of the Union speeches. That “choreographed standing and clapping of one side of the room – while the other side sits is unbecoming of a serious institution,” Udall said in his letter.
