Boehner holds his first pen & pad

A common fixture among the Washington press corps is the weekly pen & pad news briefing between reporters and the House majority leader over the schedule of which bills will come to the House floor. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had been known to draw a line outside his office more than 45 minutes before the start of the 30-minute session when reporters were eager to grill him on ethics charges.

Today, new Majority Leader John Boehner, a West Chester Republican, kicked off his first session.

Facing a standing-room-only room of about 40-50 Washington reporters that crammed eagerly into his new office in the U.S. Capitol (H-107), Boehner flashed a wry smile, glanced at a half dozen tape recorders sliding across the table toward him, greeted a few reporters by name, and got started:

Boehner: “Well, good afternoon, everyone.”

Reporters: “Hello.”

Boehner: “If this goes well, maybe we'll do it again. How's that?”

Unidentified Reporter: “What's the signal if it does go well?”

Boehner (with a wink): “We'll decide that later.”

The questions came from all around the room, and jumped from port security to the pending pension bill to immigration to ethics reform. Unlike his predecessor, who took a transcript but never shared it with the media, Boehner’s press office e-mailed a full take of the 1:30 p.m. event to reporters by 4 p.m.

“Who takes care of ya?” asked Boehner’s press secretary, Kevin Madden, in his e-mail to reporters. “In unison: Youuuu doooo, Madddogggg.”

In many ways, Boehner is still enjoying a honeymoon of sorts. After winning an upset victory against House Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., to get the job on Feb. 2, Boehner has been busy with the GOP retreat earlier this month, campaigning for fellow Republicans and hiring a new leadership staff for his new office.

“What is different about being in charge?” asked one reporter. “Explain how your life has changed.”

“Well, life has not changed a whole lot. There are still only seven days in a week and still only 24 hours in a day. But the days and weeks are filled up with a little different activities than what they were,” Boehner said. “This is the first week where I have finally felt like I had a little breathing room. Part of the difficulty we have had is trying to run the House, build a staff, and build an operation all on the run. There just there was no transition time.

“Do you like being in charge?” the reporter asked.

Boehner: “It is a very big responsibility. But I think most you have heard me say this: I'm just a regular guy with a big job. And I'll be the same guy that you all have known for some time.”

Indeed, Boehner even whipped out some of his old phrases. In an answer to a reporter’s question about whether he would allow rank-and-file Republicans to disapprove of the Dubai Ports World deal if, after the 45-day investigative period, the White House was still pushing for the sale to go forward, Boehner said:

“If ands and buts were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas. Some of you may have been around – how many years ago was that, at least 10 years ago when I had to use that line one day. I don't know. You know, let's go through the process. Let's go through the hearings and then we'll see what, if anything, needs to happen.”

That didn’t keep Boehner, however, from responding to a question about President Bush’s low approval rating. A new CBS poll shows Bush is at a record low of 34 percent.

“It makes things more difficult,” Boehner said matter-of-factly, before turning on an unfortunate reporter in the back row with windblown hair.

“Nice haircut,” Boehner said with a smirk. “That's the worst haircut I've ever seen you get.”

Finally, a sign of what Boehner’s tenure will be like, the news conference ended promptly at 2 p.m. as an ever-tan Boehner (despite the falling temperature outside), disappeared from the ornate conference room as quickly as he had entered.

UPDATE:

The "unidentified reporter" who asked Boehner at the start of the briefing how reporters would know if the session went well has been identified! It was Greater Cincinnati's own Chad Pergram of Jacksonburg in Butler County. Pergram is a radio correspondent for Capitol News Connection, which reports on Washington events for WVXU in Cincinnati and WMUB in Oxford. Pergram also is a graduate of Miami University.

Photo from the breifing comes from today's edition of Roll Call, a Capitol Hill insider newspaper.

Read a nice story about Boehner's first pen & pad in the Columbus Dispatch here.