John Lewis and G.K. Butterfield and boycotting Netanyahu’s speech next month because Obama’s outraged or something. I’m sure they’d feel quite different if Ted Cruz were president:
CBS DC – Two prominent House Democrats said Thursday they will skip Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next month, saying they disapprove of House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite the Israeli leader without consulting the White House.
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, and Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said they won’t attend Netanyahu’s March 3 speech.
“I think it’s an affront to the president and the State Department what the speaker did,” by not consulting the White House, Lewis said in an interview.
Butterfield said he was “very disappointed that the speaker would cause such a ruckus” among members of Congress. He called the speaker’s actions “unprecedented.”
Butterfield also criticized Netanyahu, saying that by accepting Boehner’s invitation without talking to President Barack Obama, the prime minister had “politicized” his visit to the United States.
…
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said she plans to attend the speech.
“It is really sad that it has come to this,” Pelosi said Thursday, adding that “as of now, it is my intention to go.”