Boehner unlikely to golf again with Obama

Boehner unlikely to golf again with Obama
By Ben Kamisar - 07-29-15 13:16 PM EDT

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said is unlikely to hit the golf links any time soon with President because people get “bent out of shape." 

“The President has suggested, ‘Hey, do you think it is too much trouble to play golf again?’” he said in excerpts of an interview on the Golf Channel airing Monday.

“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 avid golfer dished on his 2011 round of golf with Obama, when the two defeated Vice President Joe Biden and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), who is now running for the GPO presidential nomination.

Obama invited the speaker to golf with the president and vice president, giving Boehner the choice to pick a fourth. When he brought along Kasich, Obama decided to split up the Ohioans.

“The President and I whipped up on them pretty good and they paid up,” he said.

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

To Boehner, golf is his “escape” to get out of the stresses of the job.

“It is an escape from all of the other things going on because when you are trying to hit that little white ball, you don’t have time to think about anything else,” he said.

He told his interviewer, David Feherty, that he wants to be remembered as “fair, decent and honest,” someone that treats members from both parties the same.

And as one of the most powerful people in Washington, he’s not willing to risk it all on a shot at the White House.

“You’ve got to either have a very special calling or be an ego maniac to want to [run for president,” 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.”