Rex, the famous bomb-sniffing Iraq veteran, got a front row seat at the State of the Union address tonight.
Rex, who was the subject of Legislative action, was the guest of First Lady Laura Bush. Ever the diplomat, Rex has not revealed his opinion of the State of the Union Address.
Bomb-Sniffing Dog Gets Good Seat at Speech
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
First lady Laura Bush's guests at her husband's annual address to Congress certainly were diverse. One, in fact, wasn't even human.
Rex, a 5-year-old German shepherd, fit in with the other Iraq war veterans who were guests of Republicans and Democrats.
Rex sniffed out bombs in Iraq. He's been the subject of congressional legislation. He's famous, and Wednesday night he became one of Mrs. Bush's guests at the State of the Union speech.
How Rex landed such a coveted seat — actually a spot in the aisle labeled "Rex" on the official seating chart — is quite a tale.
His owner, Air Force Tech Sgt. Jamie Dana, awoke in a military hospital last summer badly injured by a bomb in Iraq and crying for her bomb-sniffing dog. Someone told her Rex was dead.
Later, Dana found out that wasn't true. But it would take an act of Congress before she could take him home to Pennsylvania.
The Air Force said it had spent $18,000 training Rex and that, by statute, he needed to finish the remaining five years of his useful life before he could be adopted. Dana's congressman, Rep. John Peterson (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., helped abolish that policy in an end-of-year defense bill, the White House said.
No less interesting were the other guests of Republicans and Democrats, ranging from parents of fallen soldiers to the mayor of Washington to survivors and rescue personnel from Hurricane Katrina.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., hosted Cindy Sheehan, whose vigil for her 24-year-old soldier son killed in Iraq, Casey, reinvigorated the anti-war movement. But Sheehan was arrested and removed from the House gallery before Bush began speaking. She was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor.
Also in Mrs. Bush's box were the family of Marine Staff Sgt. Dan Clay, 27, who was killed Dec. 1 in Fallujah.
Democrats offered a gallery seat to Benny Rousselle, president of Plaqemines Parish, La., which was heavily damaged by Katrina.
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Conspicuously absent from the table of powerful House Republican leaders was Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who sat there for a decade as the vote-counting GOP whip and schedule-setting majority leader. He was forced to step down from the post last year after being indicted on state campaign finance charges and connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at the table instead were the candidates to succeed him: Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri, Ohio Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record) and Arizona Rep. John Shadegg (news, bio, voting record). House Republicans choose a new majority leader Thursday.
Spokesman Kevin Madden said DeLay was sitting near a podium from which members debate opponents. Madden said DeLay arrived in Washington around 5 p.m. and planned a full slate of broadcast interviews after the speech.
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Seated below the gallery were the most members of the Supreme Court to attend the annual address since the late 1990s.
Two new faces appeared: Chief Justice John Roberts and newly confirmed Associate Justice Samuel Alito. Joining them were Justices Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas.
Breyer is the only court member to attend all the State of the Union speeches since 2000, when none of the justices showed up.
The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist was not a regular at the State of the Union address. He last attended in 1998.
It is unusual for all nine justices to attend a State of the Union address. Throughout the mid- to late 1990s, at least five justices turned out to hear the president speak.
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Rep. Ben Cardin and former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, two rivals for the Democratic Senate nomination from Maryland, sat next to one another, chatting occasionally.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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