Lawmakers send messages with speech guests

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A number of Washington legislators used their tickets to U.S. President George Bush's State of the Union address to send messages to the administration.

Actor Michael J. Fox, who starred in Democratic TV spots championing stem cell research during the 2006 midterm campaign, attended the Tuesday evening event as a guest of U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who said the invitation was a message to the president about "how serious I am about pursuing the promise of stem cell research," The Washington Times reported Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., also used a guest to send a message by inviting the wife of a U.S. Border Patrol agent whom the congressman believes was "unjustly" imprisoned for a shooting incident during a confrontation with a suspected drug smuggler.

"This has gotten to be such a big production about everything other than the address," one Senate aide told the Times. "It's become a forum for everybody who wants to air grievances to a national audience rather than a forum to hear from the president on the state of the union."