Peterson won’t jump up and down for the State of the Union
DFL Rep. Collin Peterson says he thinks he'll sit with GOP Rep Frank Lucas again at tonight's State of the Union. Lucas took over as chair of the House Agriculture Committee which Peterson held when Democrats controlled the House.
But it has nothing to do with the new bipartisan mood that's captured the Congress:
"All of this foolishness with who's going to sit with who tomorrow night. I mean, geez. Last year, I sat with Frank Lucas kind of by accident.
I came in late and there weren't any seats on our side. So I wandered back over to the Republican side and Frank had a seat next to him and I sat down and we sat next to each other.
"You know what that got me? It got stories that I was going to switch parties. So now this year, all of a sudden, some of the most partisan guys who would never be bipartisan have dreamed up this thing that we're all going to be bipartisan. We're all going to sit next to each other.
It kind or irritates guys like me who do this all of the time. It's like 'The only time we're going to be bipartisan is when somebody pays attention so we'll send out a press release.'
It's part of what's wrong with this town."
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Peterson says he plans to sit with Lucas again tonight on the GOP side of the aisle but no one should report that he's thinking about switching parties.
"They didn't stand up as much last year so that was good," Peterson said of the Republicans last year. "I didn't have to jump and down. I could just sit there."
You can listen to Cathy Wurzer's full interview with Peterson here: