11-19-2009, 10:57 PM
<b>State Dinner : Who's in, Who's out</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->His wife may be the Secretary of State but that doesn't mean Bill Clinton is coming to the party.
A spokesman for the<b> former president says he will not be attending the state dinner honoring India on Tuesday.</b>
The White House has been keeping a tight seal on the state dinner guest list â so much so that the only officially confirmed attendee is Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But the list canât be a state secret forever. Among the members of the White House Cabinet that will attend are: <b>Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who just spent several days in India promoting clean energy; and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.</b>
<b>United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice has been invited, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.</b>
Invites donât go to only Democrats. <b>Louisiana Governor and Indian-American Bobby Jindal, </b>who gave the Republican response to President Obamaâs address to Congress earlier this year, is on the list â and plans to attend.
Some guests have decided to regret the invitations. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will be at home for Thanksgiving break. Lockheed Martin Corp. CEO Bob Stevens received an invitation, but decided to decline.
Equally of interest: who didnât make the cut? Admiral Michael Mullen, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was not invited, even though the White House has traditionally invited the joint chiefs. Two key California Democrats werenât invited: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, one of Obamaâs biggest superdelegates during his campaign, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has been key in shepherding Obamaâs climate initiatives in the Senate. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) were also not invited.
On K Street, invitations were sparse, even among the head honchos. Prominent Democrats not on the guest list: longtime Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf â and former Al Gore chief of staff Jack Quinn, now co-founder of Quinn Gillespie. Quinn has been invited to at least two in the past. Elmendorf went once while working as a Capitol Hill staffer.
âI went to one under Clinton, when I was Gephardtâs chief of staff, [but] never as a lobbyist,â Elmendorf said.
R. Bruce McLean, chairman of Akin Gump, has seen no White House stationary lately. Mark Irion, CEO of Dutko Worldwide, puts it down to a faulty mail carrier.
âSadly, Iâve had a lot of problems with my mail,â Irion said. âIâve not been invited to a State Dinner. They may know of my penchant for stealing silverware.â
President Bush hosted a dinner for Singh in 2005, and some of the guests that attended have not been invited back. Dr. Julian Raby, director, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and Narender Reddy, the president of Sterling Realty Services Inc., have received no invitation.
Others who might have been expected to be in the mix, such as Ajit Jain, a protégé of Warren Buffett, is a no-go. And don't expect to see M. Night Shyamalan at the State Dinner. His agent says he didn't score an invite.
In past years, the White House has also incorporated athletes from winning sports teams into its state dinner line-up. But a spokesman for the Yankees says he doesn't expect any players to show. Same goes for the Phillies.
A spokesman for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers â owned by Obama pal also says no one on the team is expected to make an appearance at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
<b>CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Obama's original pick for Surgeon General, and Fareed Zakariah, who wrote a book the president said he was reading, are likely guests.</b> Gupta did not reply to an e-mail seeking confirmation and a spokesperson for CNN did not respond to an inquiry on the invite.
<b>Fashion designer Rachel Roy â whose clothes Michelle Obama has worn in the past -- also did not responding to calls about her attendance at the dinne</b>r.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A spokesman for the<b> former president says he will not be attending the state dinner honoring India on Tuesday.</b>
The White House has been keeping a tight seal on the state dinner guest list â so much so that the only officially confirmed attendee is Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But the list canât be a state secret forever. Among the members of the White House Cabinet that will attend are: <b>Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who just spent several days in India promoting clean energy; and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.</b>
<b>United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice has been invited, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.</b>
Invites donât go to only Democrats. <b>Louisiana Governor and Indian-American Bobby Jindal, </b>who gave the Republican response to President Obamaâs address to Congress earlier this year, is on the list â and plans to attend.
Some guests have decided to regret the invitations. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will be at home for Thanksgiving break. Lockheed Martin Corp. CEO Bob Stevens received an invitation, but decided to decline.
Equally of interest: who didnât make the cut? Admiral Michael Mullen, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was not invited, even though the White House has traditionally invited the joint chiefs. Two key California Democrats werenât invited: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, one of Obamaâs biggest superdelegates during his campaign, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has been key in shepherding Obamaâs climate initiatives in the Senate. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) were also not invited.
On K Street, invitations were sparse, even among the head honchos. Prominent Democrats not on the guest list: longtime Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf â and former Al Gore chief of staff Jack Quinn, now co-founder of Quinn Gillespie. Quinn has been invited to at least two in the past. Elmendorf went once while working as a Capitol Hill staffer.
âI went to one under Clinton, when I was Gephardtâs chief of staff, [but] never as a lobbyist,â Elmendorf said.
R. Bruce McLean, chairman of Akin Gump, has seen no White House stationary lately. Mark Irion, CEO of Dutko Worldwide, puts it down to a faulty mail carrier.
âSadly, Iâve had a lot of problems with my mail,â Irion said. âIâve not been invited to a State Dinner. They may know of my penchant for stealing silverware.â
President Bush hosted a dinner for Singh in 2005, and some of the guests that attended have not been invited back. Dr. Julian Raby, director, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and Narender Reddy, the president of Sterling Realty Services Inc., have received no invitation.
Others who might have been expected to be in the mix, such as Ajit Jain, a protégé of Warren Buffett, is a no-go. And don't expect to see M. Night Shyamalan at the State Dinner. His agent says he didn't score an invite.
In past years, the White House has also incorporated athletes from winning sports teams into its state dinner line-up. But a spokesman for the Yankees says he doesn't expect any players to show. Same goes for the Phillies.
A spokesman for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers â owned by Obama pal also says no one on the team is expected to make an appearance at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
<b>CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Obama's original pick for Surgeon General, and Fareed Zakariah, who wrote a book the president said he was reading, are likely guests.</b> Gupta did not reply to an e-mail seeking confirmation and a spokesperson for CNN did not respond to an inquiry on the invite.
<b>Fashion designer Rachel Roy â whose clothes Michelle Obama has worn in the past -- also did not responding to calls about her attendance at the dinne</b>r.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->