Jackson initially went down to the floor with McKinney to claim two seats. Knowing that the section they wanted is normally reserved for Senators, he said, “Since none of these Democrats over there [in the Senate] filibustered Alito, why can’t we have these seats?”

“That makes sense to me, J-3,” McKinney replied, according to Jackson. And with that, Jackson went back to his office, leaving McKinney to protect the seats until showtime. Three hours after Jackson got back to his office, though, his cell phone rang. Uh-oh, it was a frantic McKinney telling him that Sergeant-at-Arms staffers were kicking her out of the seats!

Jackson said he ran back to the floor to mediate, repeating to the Sergeant at Arms officials, “Why are we reserving seats for people who [didn’t filibuster] Alito?” One of the officials who Jackson called “the protectors of the seats for the Senate” explained that was out of his control.

They went back and forth for a few tense moments, but ultimately Jackson and McKinney ended up finding other seats not far away, avoiding a big standoff with Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders.

But HOH couldn’t help wondering, why do McKinney and Jackson go through all the trouble of saving seats for hours on end to shake hands with a president they don’t even like? McKinney didn’t respond to inquiries, but Jackson laughed as he acknowledged, “It’s not that I want to hear President Bush’s speech.”

No, it’s that TV commercials are expensive and the Congressional Black Caucus, by his estimation, has only been invited to the Bush White House twice, so State of the Union is a chance “to show our constituents our proximity to the president. … They need to know their Members of Congress have access to the president.”

John Boehner wins it in the second ballot.

The first ballot complete, Blunt stopped from getting the votes he needed. Good news for Shadegg. Developing….

Reports that the first round had to be redone after there appeared to be more ballots than Republican congressmen.