President Obama went down to Capitol Hill yesterday to meet with House Republicans and was immediately barraged by their non-factual universe. To wit:
Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) — the Republican Policy Committee chairman — brought up a familiar hobby-horse for House Republicans: that Obama is always campaigning.
He asked about Organizing for Action’s (OFA) meeting. He complained that Obama called Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) before Boehner on election night. Obama said that wasn’t true and that he had called Boehner, but Boehner had gone to sleep, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The speaker said the president was right, the source said.
I thought it was common knowledge that John Boehner passed out drunk in his easy chair right around the time that Karl Rove lost his shit on Fox News. At the least, I thought people knew that election night was just one more example of John Boehner not taking the president’s phone calls.
In any case, it’s telling that Rep. James Lankford took his opportunity to ask the president a question and wasted it by regurgitating some lie he’s been reading on Drudge Report or NewsMax or wherever.
Nonetheless, the meeting went well enough that the president and Speaker received a standing ovation at the end. But then Boehner turned around and confirmed that “a frank exchange of views” still means “didn’t agree about anything,” by writing a nasty opinion piece in the Washington Post.
Today, the president will meet with Senate Republicans (I recommend a headlock noogie for freshman Ted Cruz) and the House Democrats. I expect the meeting with the House Democrats to be the more unpleasant of the two meetings. Obama has enough support among Senate Republicans to pass some of his gun legislation, get an immigration bill with a path to citizenship, and to cut a deal on the budget (whether grand or not). Of course, any deal is going to annoy the hell out of progressive Democrats. Progressives also represent constituencies who are most immediately affected by the budget cuts in the Sequester, so they are antsy to see some sign of progress. That these two things are in conflict is just the nature of the problem that Republicans create by their intransigence.
