EDITORIAL:

To snub or not to snub.

That was the question last week when President Barack Obama came to Costa Mesa to cajole his faithful to join his campaign to get Congress to approve his budget.

It’s important to note that the White House goofed up a couple of invitations.

Assemblyman Van Tran, Costa Mesa’s state lawmaker, got a ticket, but because of a mix-up at the gate he didn’t get in and then decided he’d rather not go through the hassle of trying to catch up with Obama later on during his California trip. Fair enough. At least he tried.

That’s more than four out of the five Costa Mesa City Council members did. The only one who showed up was the Democrat on the council. State Sen. Tom Harman, who represents Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, also took a pass.

But the local representative who made the most of the gaffes with invitations was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. He shrewdly played it to his advantage when it came to light the White House failed to get an invitation to the local congressman. Ultimately, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called Rohrabacher to apologize and the congressman wisely extracted a promise of some contact with Obama’s top advisor on Afghanistan. Rohrabacher and Obama share some common ground on the strategy there and Rohrabacher wanted to compare notes.

That’s how you play the Washington game.

With so much acrimony and partisanship going on in D.C. it’s nice to see a conservative take the snub in stride. It’s a bonus he found a way to get closer to the president’s inner circle.

We understand Harman felt it was important to tend to business in Sacramento, but Tran, who was one of the area’s biggest John McCain supporters, made time to try to meet the president. Harman has told us in quite passionate terms about how important it is to get the economy back on track with shovel-ready projects that generate jobs. That’s exactly what the stimulus package was all about and what Obama addressed at the meeting. You’d think Harman would have wanted to be there to discuss it. We know the business in Sacramento is urgent with California teetering on the brink of economic collapse, but the president doesn’t come to your back yard every day and when you’re depending on federal dollars to help with your recovery you owe it to your constituents to get some face time with the man who can help make that happen.