Cong. Jared Polis declined to attend Obama Oval Office event yesterday

UPDATE: Polis' office just called to say that he did not "boycott" the Oval Office benefits signing. The congressman was invited to the event, but Polis says that he had a very busy day, including a meeting with the Speaker, and then he had to be at a Congressional Baseball Game that conflicted with the Oval Office meeting. So instead of meeting with the leader of the free world, something that freshman congressmen rarely get, Polis chose to play baseball. (He reportedly did help his fellow Democrats beat the Republicans, 15-10). You can make your own judgment.

Hats off to Jared Polis. The new freshman Democratic congressman from Colorado, who is openly gay, boycotted turned down an invite to the Oval Office yesterday for the mini-me gay benefits signing.

Yesterday was a tale of three openly gay congressmen. One was Barney Frank, the old former leader of our movement in Congress, who after getting a visit to the Oval Office, suddenly discovered that he loved Big Brother. The second was Tammy Baldwin, who attended the event with Barney, and who is now doing TV defending Obama's filing of the incest brief - we've all been wishing for a while that the day will come when Tammy visits the Wizard and he gives her a spine and a conscience. And finally, there's Jared Polis. Jared is the new guy on the block. He had an initial stumble early on when he misspoke about the status of gay rights legislation on the Hill. People were a bit ticked at him. But Jared made up for it yesterday. First he issued a blistering statement about the DOJ brief. Then today, his staff informed one of our readers that Jared boycotted the Oval Office benefits signing ceremony yesterday because he felt the signing of the memo was just not good enough. (As I indicated above, Polis' office says now that he simply had a conflict and chose to go the baseball game instead of meet with the President in the Oval Office.)

We still want Jared, Tammy and Barney to pull out of the posh and quite embattled $1000 a head gay fundraiser they're hosting next week for the DNC. Attendees are dropping like flies following a community-wide boycott of the event. But this is still a good first step for Jared. Perhaps we've finally found a leader in Congress after all.