Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner

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By Joseph Curl and Matthew Mosk

While the White House is mum about who will be among the 300 or so lucky invitees to President Obama's first state dinner Tuesday night, word is already leaking out about who's not going to be there.

Chief among the non-attendees: top Republican lawmakers.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner was invited but won't be there; he's on Thanksgiving break and home in Ohio. His deputy, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, didn't get an invitation to the dinner.

The president didn't invite his 2008 rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, even though Mr. Obama the candidate pledged a post-partisan presidency.

Most senators will be back in their home states during the holiday break, and few Republicans want to return to Washington for a party packed with Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell received an invitation but decided to skip the dinner.

"Sen. McConnell is with his constituents this week and will be at Kentucky events tomorrow and tomorrow night," Don Stewart, the senator's communications director, said Monday.

Some top Democrats also found themselves out of the loop. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who turned out to be a pivotal player in Saturday's health care vote, didn't rate an invitation. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, who wrote the first draft of the bill, also didn't get the vaunted engraved invitation to the black-tie dinner.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned independent who will be crucial to the fate of health care reform, won't be attending the dinner. He prefers to stay in Connecticut.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was invited to Monday night's session in the White House Situation Room to discuss Afghanistan but not to the dinner on Tuesday. Although Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be there, her husband, Bill - a fierce Obama critic during his wife's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination - will not.

There's much speculation about who will attend. According to rumors, talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, who endorsed Mr. Obama during the campaign, will be attending. But a friend of hers speaking on MSNBC said she will not attend. Reports emerged Monday that Hollywood will be in the house: DreamWorks partners David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, along with Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Michael Lynton and WME Entertainment Agency co-CEO Ari Emanuel, will attend, according to deadline.com.