HBO made it necessary for someone from the Obama side to speak up after the network shifted the blame of the exclusion of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson from the telecast of the inaugural concert. 
Presidential Inaugural Committee communications director Josh Earnest got to do the speaking (and, yes, I got a mild chuckle out of having a communications guy named “Earnest”): 
“We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson’s invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday’s program. We regret the error in executing this plan – …

Large sections of the progressive community did not take well to Obama’s choice of Pastor Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation. It was then announced that Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop, would be delivering an opening prayer before the inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial. A far smaller billing than Warren and it read like a weak attempt to throw the LGBT (and progressive at whole) community a very small bone. 
But Bishop Robinson’s inclusion was more minor than anyone had expected because his prayer was omitted from the television …