WASHINGTON — Rep. John Rose may never give a more memorable speech on the House floor.
It had nothing to do with anything the Tennessee Republican said Monday. In fact, anyone watching likely didn’t pay attention to hardly a word. How could they with all that was going on behind him?
It was the young boy sitting behind Rose who had C-SPAN viewers doing a double-take on a rather dull legislative day filled with naming new post offices and other routine measures.
First the boy looked directly into the cameras, smiling from ear to ear. Then he got bored for a bit and appeared to lose his train of thought. But not for long. Out came the tongue. Then came the rolling of the eyes and a shaking of the head, making clear to the world that he was less than impressed with the stodgy decorum of the House of Representatives.
And then came the hand motions, a sign language of silliness that might have gotten him sent to the principal’s office if he were in school.
Before long, young Guy Rose, the son of the congressman, was a social media star and a new meme — at age 6. The youngster just graduated from kindergarten last week and is with the congressman for the week. Rep. Rose’s youngest son, Sam, 3, and his wife, Chelsea, are back in Tennessee.
“He knows something,” Doug Andres, the spokesman for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, tweeted on X with a caption of the young Rose holding his hands in a triangle motion in front of his face.
“So sorry I was slow responding to your email, I was tied up watching this over and over again,” tweeted Aaron Fritschner, the communications director for Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.
All the while, an unsuspecting Rep. Rose continued on with a speech — a serious effort decrying last week’s conviction of former President Donald Trump in a New York courtroom. “As an attorney, I can tell you that May 30th will be among the more infamous dates in American history,” he said at one point.
After the speech, as the reviews poured in, the congressman did not appear perturbed. And he graciously took some responsibility.
“This is what I get for telling my son Guy to smile at the camera for his little brother,” Rose tweeted.