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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 16 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Golfing through D.C. gulfs
If you were John Boehner, and you were playing golf with the president, and he was bringing Joe Biden, whom would you bring? Of course: John Kasich.
Boehner surely wanted to spare himself the thankless task of picking a golf partner from among his congressional colleagues; that would be a great way to tick off about 60 politician/golfers. And he certainly didn’t want to pick from among the presidential candidates. Who needs that grief?
And picking one of the big-business lobbyists he is known for golfing with would not have been quite the ticket.
Beyond all that, though, there’s just something sort of fitting, isn’t there, about the Biden-Kasich pairing?
No chance of the motor mouth of a vice president dominating the conversation with Kasich around.
Both Kasich and Biden have enjoyed reputations at various times and places for loving the sound of their own unscripted voices. And for occasionally being better off with a script.
One imagines Biden and Kasich going off into the woods in pursuit of errant golf balls and striking up a conversation characterized by the sound of two voices talking, in which nobody hears anybody. It’s a “Saturday Night Live” skit.
But, of course, that’s the sideshow in Saturday’s foursome. The real question is about Obama and Boehner: Will they hear each other?
Specifically, can they progress toward some sort of agreement on raising the national debt limit or perhaps some other conflict further down the road?
Everybody on both sides and in the media is saying not to count on it. This is just social, they’re saying. Maybe it’ll improve the relationship, and maybe that will someday matter somehow. But don’t count on anything concrete.
Everybody may be right. Truth is, Obama and Boehner are probably not even motivated by the desire to make headway, so much as by the desire to be seen trying.
The golf date didn’t just materialize suddenly as somebody’s inspiration. The idea has been talked about in the media, starting months ago.
Lots of people in Washington remember president/speaker relationships of old, wherein leaders supposedly had useful cross-party relationships. Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich. Dwight Eisenhower and Sam Rayburn.
Meanwhile, golf courses have a special place in tales of Washington relationships. This makes sense even to those of us who don’t golf: There’s so little action, there’s plenty of time to talk.
Obama is being praised for willingness to play with a much better, far more serious golfer in Boehner. Surely Obama would rather invite Boehner to a basketball court. But who’s going to buy that as a conversation venue?
Boehner said explicitly during the 2010 campaign that he and Obama had no real relationship.
After last year’s election made Boehner speaker, various aides were reported in The New York Times to say they “could not recall a single one-on-one meeting or substantive phone call” between him and the president.
Said Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf, “I’m surprised Obama hasn’t done more to develop; a relationship…. They both like to play golf. I’d invite him four times a year to play…. There’s going to be times when you’re going to need him.”
But little has changed. Boehner even turns down invitations to big White House dinners. It’s all business.
You have to wonder how much can change. Golf isn’t necessarily the solution to gulfs. The gulfs between the men are big, and Boehner doesn’t have a free hand, being under much pressure from the right. It’s a different kind of time than other speakers and presidents confronted.
If the two men can find major common ground, it’s most likely to be on some issue that isn’t bitterly divisive along party lines. They have agreements about foreign policy and education.
Boehner is known as the kind of guy you can have a beer with — or a smoke. Or a round of golf. Good. And surely it can’t hurt for for him to deal with Obama outside of tense negotiations.
But you get the feeling that mainly both guys just want to be able to say to the political world, “OK, we played golf. You happy now?”
SNL should be.
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