Obama, Boehner To Have Oval Office Meeting

A win-win for the President: either legislation advances, or he can hang the “do-nothing Congress” albatross around the GOP neck in time for 2014 midterm campaigns. Grab the popcorn:

After an acrimonious year where they failed to agree on almost anything, President Barack Obama will host Republican Speaker John Boehner for a rare one-on-one meeting on Tuesday, the White House said.

But with fiscal crises out of the way for the time being, and prospects for major legislation dimming ahead of November midterm elections, it’s unclear what the two men will talk about.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said Obama reached out to Boehner with the invitation, and that a “broad set of topics” would be discussed.

“The President and the Speaker are looking forward to discussing a range of items on the legislative agenda,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

The two leaders last met alone in the Oval Office on December 17, 2012, Buck said. That was during the days of the looming “fiscal cliff,” when the two leaders sought but ultimately failed to find a “grand bargain” on tax reform and spending cuts during deficit reduction talks.

“Really? That long ago!” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, noting that Obama has probably met more often with Russian President Vladimir Putin than with Boehner.

“There are two really different cold wars being waged,” Sabato said.

Since Boehner took the speaker’s gavel in 2011, the two leaders have had a near-constant battle over fiscal issues, fights punctuated by a showdown over raising the debt ceiling in 2011, a “fiscal cliff” deadline in late 2012, and a 16-day government shutdown in October 2013.

After the 2012 talks flopped, Boehner said he had given up on negotiating with Obama.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.