Lugar turns down Air Force One invite

My colleague Carol Lee reports that Indiana Republican Senator Dick Lugar won't accompany President Obama to his home state tomorrow, despite an invitation from the president.

Indiana's other senator, Democrat Evan Bayh, will be aboard Air Force One, along with six seven current and former members of Congress, one of whom, Brad Ellsworth, voted against the House bill.

A White House official confirmed that Lugar had been invited; a Lugar spokesman didn't respond to a question of why the senator would not be present.

Also on the trip: Rep. Fred Upton, who represents a district in Michigan along the Indiana border, who voted against the stimulus package in the House. But he also immediately issued a statement afterwards signaling he could be persuaded.

The House bill was “not the first step we should take to turn the economy around,” Upton said in the statement, while adding that he was “heartened that [Obama] will fulfill his pledge to work together in crafting a bipartisan package.”

Obama invited Upton to his Super Bowl party last weekend, and the congressman was one of a small group of guests at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s dinner on January 27, the night before the House passed the $819 billion stimulus bill without a single Republican vote.