My favorite moment of the State of the Union address, as noted and captured by John Aravosis at AmericaBlog, was Justice Samuel Alito’s reaction to being mildly criticized.

One of the sillier customs of the SOTU Address (don’t call it a “speech”) along with the ritualistic, half-hearted, rapturous standing ovations is that the Supreme Court comes to sit there and do their impression of the Sphinx. They don’t stand, they don’t applaud, the just sit there. But it is a custom and it is to be rigorously observed.

But when Obama criticized the recent Citizens United vs. FEC decision as ignorning precedent and opening the floodgates to profligate special interests (especially corporate) spending…Alito, who next year will be there in his “Quaker State, NAPA Autoparts, Viagra, Black Velvet Whisky Robe“, was not amused:

Alito has now spoken more in the House Chamber than Clarence Thomas has in the Supreme Court.

Of course, the post-speech reaction of Chris Matthews, is always a “special” uh, thing, he claimed to have liked the speech so much that for at least an hour, he almost forgot Obama was a black guy. Tell you what Chris, next year he’ll enter the House Chamber with the musical accompaniment of “Sweet Georgia Brown” to help you out.