Washington – CAPITOL HILL BUZZ: Boehner Says Golf With Obama Is A Game

Washington – Speaker John Boehner has a message for everyone wondering what happens when he plays golf with President Barack Obama: It’s just a game.

“The president has suggested, ‘Hey, do you think it is too much trouble to play golf again?'” Boehner says in an interview with the Golf Channel. “I have to look at him and say, ‘Yes, because everybody gets bent out of shape worried about what we are up to, when all we are really going to do is just play golf.'”

The Ohio Republican shared several golf stories and described the appeal of the sport during an interview with David Feherty that will air on the Golf Channel Monday night. Boehner is described as a five-handicap golfer before he became speaker in January 2011, with no mention of whether his game has improved or suffered in the last four years.

Obama and Boehner played golf in 2011 during the heat of budget negotiations, but the foray on the links failed to help in an elusive search for a grand bargain.

The speaker recalled another golf match with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

“President Obama shows up, we are getting ready to putt a few, and he says, ‘Boehner, you and I are partners. We are going to take these guys (Kasich and Biden) on,” Boehner recalled. “I thought John Kasich was going to cry. So the president and I whipped up on them pretty good and they paid up.”

“As soon as we got in the cart I said, Mr. President, just remember something, this is just golf,” he said.

Boehner says he has no interest in running for president.

“You’ve got to either have a very special calling or be an egomaniac to want to do this,” he said. “On top of that, I smoke cigarettes, I drink red wine, I play golf, I cut my own grass and I wash and iron my own shirts. I’m not giving that up to be president of the United States.”