Boehner: A Dealmaker And A Survivor In Tight Spot

Boehner: a dealmaker and a survivor in tight spot Associated Press Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 5:41 am, Saturday, December 15, 2012 WASHINGTON (AP) — It's been just a month on the calendar but seemingly a lifetime in politics since House Speaker John Boehner got a pricey bottle of red wine from President Barack Obama as a birthday present, a feel-good image that the speaker's aides tweeted far and wide. Obama is tugging Boehner one way in pursuit of a budget deal, while conservatives yank the other way, some howling that he's already going wobbly on them and turning vindictive against those in his party who dare disagree. With Obama's re-election giving Democrats more leverage over Republicans, and far-right critics pushing a (hash)FireBoehner hashtag on Twitter, Boehner is in an incredibly tight spot. At least within his own party, he may be in a better place now than he was during a rough first two years as speaker that produced few solid accomplishments, pushed big budget decisions down the road and saw already-low congressional approval ratings sink even further. The election that felled presidential nominee Mitt Romney, thrashed Senate Republicans and narrowed the GOP majority in the House also rid some of the loudest tea party voices in Boehner's fractious caucus and gave pause to other Republican legislators who felt their speaker had been too accommodating of Democrats in 2011 debt negotiations. [...] Obama and Boehner are right back at it, negotiating in person, by phone and by intermediaries, as they trade offers and counteroffers over huge questions about tax rates and spending. "Saturday Night Live" played Boehner for laughs in a recent skit showing Obama defending a despondent speaker with a perpetual tan against Republican bullies who made him sit alone in the House cafeteria and threw his milk in the garbage. Obama drew a colorful sketch of his negotiating partner during the 2011 budget talks, as quoted by author Bob Woodward: "He's a golf-playing, cigarette-smoking, country-club Republican who's there to make deals." "All you need to know about the differences between the president and myself is that I'm sitting there smoking a cigarette, drinking merlot, and I look across the table and here is the president of the United States drinking iced tea and chomping on Nicorette," he told Woodward. For one thing, Boehner has taken pains to present a more unified front with his fellow House GOP leaders in the current debt talks, after constant speculation over the previous two years that ambitious underlings were angling to replace him. Presiding over the lighting of the Capitol Christmas tree, Boehner took time to fuss over the optics of his photo op with a Colorado high school student invited to turn on the lights. Speaking about the difficulties of leading his diverse caucus, he once explained: "It's hard to keep 218 frogs in a wheelbarrow long enough to get a bill passed," referring to the number of votes needed to approve legislation. Elected to Congress in 1990, he cut his teeth as part of the freshman "Gang of Seven," Republican upstarts who challenged the status quo. In his eight years between leadership jobs, Boehner hunkered down and proved himself to be an effective committee chairman and a pragmatic conservative who could work well with Democrats, pivotal to passage of President George W.