For the State of the Union squatters, the wait can be seven hours or more. You read the newspaper. You sign letters to constituents. You grumble about the rookies who think that — on this night, in this place — you can save a seat with a little paper sign instead of a bona fide, duly elected representative’s rear end.
The payoff for all of that lasts about five seconds.
From Eisenhower to Obama, presidents seem to have a penchant for some of the same lines in their State of the Union addresses. Whether it’s war or taxes or health care, there are themes that repeat again and again. Take a look back at almost 60 years of history in a little over two minutes.
State of the Union 2013
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But oh, those are five good seconds. There’s you, on national TV. And the leader of the free world seems to be laughing at your shared, private joke.
“I said, ‘Don’t forget us in North Carolina!’ . . . And he would say, ‘How could I?’ ” said Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), asked what he actually says to President Obama when the two of them shake hands. “And we would erupt in laughter.”
They’ll be there again Tuesday night, staking out seats close enough to touch Obama as he walks into the House chamber.
They’ve been around for at least 46 years. For the people on the aisle, the State of the Union is a rare night when a low-ranking legislator can score both a TV appearance and a personal audience with the president.
Just try to ignore the elbows thrown by your colleagues. And be brief.
“You can’t have a dissertation, you know what I mean? So it would be, ‘Stand by Israel, now,’ or ‘Stick with Israel, now,’ ” said Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), recounting what he used to say to President George W. Bush. “Bush would usually say, ‘Oh, I believe that.’ ‘Oh, I will.’ ”
The squatters on the House aisle are now a familiar part of the State of the Union ritual — a signal that the night has evolved from from a speech into a show, and then from the president’s show to more of an ensemble piece.
On Tuesday, for instance, a variety of legislators have invited their own politically symbolic guests to sit in the House gallery and draw attention to a personal cause. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) will bring an illegal immigrant. Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.) will bring fiery anti-Obama rocker Ted Nugent.
This is the newfangled way to grab some of the president’s spotlight. The old-fashioned way — dating at least to the late ’60s — has been to reach out and grab the president himself.
“You would get a lot of calls from back home” afterward, said former representative Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.), who first did it with President Jimmy Carter. A longer-serving member, Rep. William Natcher (D-Ky.), had invited Kildee to join him in waiting. There were cookies. And then, after Kildee had shaken the president’s hand, he found his own constituents looked at him in a different light.
“People would say, ‘Gosh, I saw you shaking hands with the president.’ So you had that advantage,” Kildee recalled.
He did it again and again, shaking hands with Democrats (“You’re doing really good in Flint,” he told President Bill Clinton, meaning Flint, Mich.) and Republicans. Most constituents didn’t mind these bipartisan handshakes. Kildee’s mother hated them.
“She did not like Reagan. She said, ‘You don’t have to smile so much when you shake hands with him,’ ” Kildee said. After that, the congressman tried to look a little less happy while glad-handing the 40th president. “I was a little more neutral about that. Took my mother’s advice.”
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