Thursday, March 14, 2013

Ireland more important than new Pope

Wall Street Journal Washington Wire blog --

Here’s one invitation that’s harder to get than a seat at a state dinner: President Barack Obama invited House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) to travel with Vice President Joe Biden to Rome to watch the Roman Catholic Church install its first pope from the Americas in its 2,000-year history. Too bad he’s busy. Mr. Boehner, who like Mr. Biden is Catholic, declined the invitation Thursday to join the delegation for the investiture next week of Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis. “I am grateful for the invitation to attend the papal investiture in Rome with Vice President Biden, and would like to be able to join the trip,” Mr. Boehner said in a written statement Thursday. “Unfortunately, my duties in the House next week – including hosting President Obama and the Prime Minister of Ireland at the Capitol on Tuesday, and the debate on the budget – make that impossible.”