The whos and whats of attendance seemed to be causing as much buzz in the run-up to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address as speculation about the actual speech.

Coming on the heels of a bloody shooting rampage at a political event in Tucson that left six dead and 13 injured — including the near-fatal wounding of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. — many members of Congress said they planned to mix up seating arrangements.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who famously yelled out, “You lie!” during the president’s first address, said he plans to sit with two Democrats during the speech.

Newly minted U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7, of Upper Darby, said he had talked about sitting with his Democratic colleague from Delaware, John Carney, but he wasn’t sure if that would pan out.

Meehan, new to Capitol Hill, said he gets the sense that the event is something like a rock concert, where people camp out for the best seats ahead of time.

“It’s encouraging to hear leaders of both parties will be sitting next to each other in a symbolic gesture of bipartisanship,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burns. “When the rhetoric gets ratcheted up to the point where it becomes venomous, problems can arise and we have seen that. … Being more cognizant of the consequences of mean-spirited rhetoric will hopefully keep the discourse moving in a positive fashion.”

Burns noted at least some of the gridlock in Washington, D.C., had broken up during the lame-duck session when several major pieces of legislation were passed.

Several Supreme Court justices could be no-shows, owing to the usually overt political overtones associated with the event — especially after Obama’s calling-out of their decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission last year. Justice Stephen Breyer has already said he plans to attend, however, because the rest of the federal government will be represented.

As to the meat of the speech, Meehan said he is hoping the president clearly lays out jobs as a top domestic priority and that both sides of the aisle can agree to begin working on putting America back to work.

“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, the people are looking for work and the issues of job creation, spending, health care, personal safety — I expect both sides will be looking to get into those issues,” said Meehan.

G. Terry Madonna, professor of public affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, said the president would likely emphasize areas where Democrats and Republicans can work together, but will draw the line at a repeal of sweeping reforms to the health insurance industry passed last year.

“There will be a civility conversation in it, and he will talk about the things on consensus he can reach with Republicans, like education and economic trade,” said Madonna. “He’ll talk about (how) there’s plenty of room for us to get along, but on health care, he’ll be fairly firm, from what I can gather.”