A PRESIDENT WITH FACIAL HAIR WOULD BE WELCOME:

Vet Secretary Skips Speech As Precaution (January 31, 2006, AP)

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson stayed away from the Capitol Tuesday night in case of a catastrophic attack or accident as President Bush delivered his State of the Union address.

House and Senate leaders of both parties also asked four top lawmakers to skip the speech, which is given in the House chamber.

By long-standing tradition, a member of the president's Cabinet misses the speech to Congress as a precaution against the entire administration being wiped out and to maintain the presidential line of succession. The last two years then-Commerce Secretary Donald Evans did not attend.

Also missing this year were Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the president pro tempore; Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., chief deputy majority whip; and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairmen of the Senate and House Democratic Policy Committees.