David Vitter, NBC Pick Football Over Obama Speech

David Vitter isn’t going to attend President Obama’s speech tonight, not because he’s sending a message to the president, but because he’s got better things to do. “I have a Saints party,” the Louisiana senator told Fox News yesterday, “and I am absolutely going to be there for the big game, kick-off of the Saints and the whole NFL.” Vitter said he expected Obama to deliver “more a political speech than a substantive speech.” And besides: “As a fanatic, I have my priorities.”

Vitter isn’t the only one making that choice. NBC’s affiliates in Milwaukee and Green Bay will both skip Obama’s speech in favor of pre-game shows for the game, the Washington Examiner reports, though Milwaukee will at least air the speech on an alternate digital channel, according to the Journal Sentinel. New Orleans’ NBC affiliate, on the other hand, must be either more patriotic or less football-crazed, because it’s showing the speech. (More David Vitter stories.)