Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) isn’t done tweaking the White House over the President’s address to a joint session on jobs tonight.
Boehner’s latest commentary over the Obama administration’s economic policies will come in the form of a special guest invited to attend the speech and sit in the Speaker’s box: the CEO Of Gibson Guitar Henry Juszkiewicz.
Republicans are portraying the company as the victim of abusive big government. On Aug. 24, the company’s Nashville headquarters were raided by more than two dozen Department of Justice agents in combat gear and armed with automatic rifles. The agents had search warrants and seized several pallets of rare wood, electric files and guitars.
No charges have been filed against the company, but Justice Department apparently told
Juszkiewicz that the administration believes the company violated Indian export law and the 1900 Lacey Act, which prohibits the importation of materials that are illegal to export from the country of origin.
“Gibson has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of any wrongdoing. We will fight aggressively to prove our innocence,” Juszkiewicz said after the raid.
In an Aug. 25 statement, Juszkiewicz said the Justice Department officials had told him he wouldn’t face any more potential violations if he moved his operations to India.
“The use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India,” he said he was told. “If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who represents Nashville, first invited the CEO to attend the speech as her guest before Boehner heard about it and seized on the opportunity to elevate the issue — and thumb his nose at President Obama in a very high-profile way.
Blackburn has said she wants to hold up Gibson as the model of what is correct about free enterprise in Tennessee and America.
“Gibson Guitar is at the heart of this jobs debate, and is an example of exactly why President Obama has it wrong when it comes to getting our economy back on track,” she said.
“Maybe if the President spent more time finding real solutions to empowering small-business owners and less time hindering businesses like Gibson, we’d see more new jobs being created,” she said.
Meanwhile, First Lady Michele Obama announced her list of special guests invited to watch the President’s speech alongside her. Her guests include: Jeffrey Immelt, the ninth chairman and CEO of General Electric; Steve Case, an original co-founder of AOL and a longtime philanthropist and entrepreneur; Kenneth Chenault, the chairman and CEO of American Express Company; Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO; Darlene Miller, a small business owner and CEO of Permac Industries, a precision machining company based in Minnesota; Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; Cincinatti Mayor Mark Mallory and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
