In the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Tucson, some members of Congress are calling for bi-partisan seating at President Obama’s  State of the Union address later this month. Among the backers: Sen. Joe Lieberman and his on-again, off-again ally Sen. John McCain.

“I believe that members of both parties can symbolize our common citizenship and common interests by sitting together to hear the president’s remarks rather than divided across the aisle by party,”  House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md, said Thursday. “This gesture … should help end the political theater of repeatedly seeing one side of the aisle rise in applause, as the other sits still.”

That might be nice, but any cooling of partisan rhetoric isn’t likely to last, Charles Babington says at The Huffington Post. Leaders of both parties have called for greater unity after such tragedies as the 9/11 attack and the Oklahoma City bombing, only to have partisan rancor resurface in a matter of months.