Since I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, I think I need to.

After the U.S. President tonight gives the yearly Constitution-mandated State of the Union address, this is followed up by the televised "Response" speech given by the opposition party out of power from the White House.

This tradition started in 1966 when Republicans Senator Everett Dirksen and Congressman (and future President himself) Gerald Ford responded to LBJ's SOTU address, and this has continued yearly since then.

Except 2011 will be slightly different. Newly-inaugrated Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was choosen to give the GOP response to Obama's Address, but tonight fellow GOPer Congresswoman Michelle Bachman of Minnesota will give her own "Tea Party" response to the Address.

To say this is unprecedented would be an understatement. Imagine if when Dubya was President, asides from say Tim Kaine giving the Democratic response, you then had Bernie Sanders or Ted Kennedy on a seperate telecast give the "liberal" response. Talk about cutting the legs out from under your own party's message of unity and opposing.

Indeed the GOP leadership says that Bachman's response means nothing. Its so irrelevant, the GOP had to let everybody know very clearly that it doesn't matter. You don't issue press releases for non-problems.

This could mean a further sign of the strains within the GOP, a struggle for power and ideological direction between the Party Establishment and the much more right wing Tea Party grassroots insurgency. This will get uglier before it gets better, especially with the primaries next year.

Or this doesn't mean as much as it might, much more Bachman granstanding and ego-stroking. She reportedly was miffed when the majority House GOP refused to give her a serious leadership role within the party congressional caucus. She might be doing this to stick it the Boys' Club. She also is reportedly considering a run for the GOP Presidential nomination next year, and this "Tea Party Response" would get her more attention and feed her potential primary voting base.

Consider also that CNN is the only TV network that will air Bachman's response. Not even Fox News, who you would assume would also air this program, will televise it.

So what does everyone think? What does this mean?