It’s time for the State of the Union (SOTU) address – are you as excited as I am? This year we may see something a little different during the speech that adds to the excitement!

I am just kidding; I’m not that excited…

Some members of Congress are planning on changing their seating for the President’s State of the Union speech tonight. Normally the Republicans sit on one side and the Democrats on the other. Some Democrats and Republicans will be sitting together during the speech. Wow!

Only in Washington would this be a big deal. There were even some polls conducted about members of Congress sitting together.

Maybe they got the idea from a teacher; changing seating arrangements is something that is done in most elementary schools several times a year.

I have not heard if the three members of Montana’s Congressional Delegation (Senator Max Baucus, Senator Jon Tester, and Congressman Denny Rehberg) have made plans to buddy-up with anyone during the speech. It would be interesting to watch them all sit together. They could say it was for Montana! For our future! Working together as a team! They could say for one night, they are throwing politics out the window! And, Max Baucus could bring the donuts…

By the way, Baucus has already issued a press release about the SOTU with the same old four words “create good-paying jobs” that are contained in most of his comments and press releases from the last quarter century.

As an interesting side note on the SOTU, Presidents can just send their written speech to Congress to be read, but the last time this was done was in 1981 by President Carter. I like Carter more after reading that. As for length of the speech, President George W. Bush never had one go over an hour. President Clinton never had one go under an hour. President Obama’s first SOTU speech was about one hour and nine minutes. (Source)

President Thomas Jefferson once said, “Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.” How true.

We could save a lot of time if the members of Congress would stay seated during the speech. The members pop up and down during the speech so much that it reminds me of the arcade game where you whack a gopher with a mallet.

Since a Republican is not in the White House, they get to deliver a response after the SOTU. Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, will deliver the response. Ryan has a degree in economics, so his speech should be a rip-roaring affair…

Batting third tonight (for some reason) is third-term Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. She will also deliver a speech sometime tonight supposedly from the Tea Party angle.

Stay tuned: I’ll be on Twitter @TheWesternWord tonight giving play by play observations…