On rare occasions, when presidents really want support from Congress, they go over from the White House to Capitol Hill to “have lunch” with legislators. President Barack Obama did just that Tuesday — and had a “frank” conversation with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and other senators.
They were appropriately “polite,” but they didn’t agree on everything, according to reports from several senators.
It was at the Tuesday luncheon, closed to reporters and the public, that President Obama and Chattanooga’s Sen. Corker “made news” this week.
Sen. Corker told President Obama that he felt the Obama administration had been less than sincere in trying to seek a bipartisan deal on the financial regulatory overhaul that was passed last week — with just four Republican votes.
The senator said there was a “tremendous disconnect” between the president’s call for “bipartisanship” and the way the administration conducted itself during the debate on financial legislation.
Sen. Corker said after the luncheon, “I said, ‘Mr. President, I think there’s a degree of audacity in your being here today. Financial reform, we all thought was doable. When you wake up in the morning and come here for our luncheon, how do you reconcile that with this duplicity?”
Some senators who were there reported President Obama “bristled.”
Tennessee’s Sen. Lamar Alexander viewed it this way: “It was a candid and frank exchange, and we appreciated the opportunity to have him. Our members aren’t bashful. They treated him with great respect and told him what they thought.”
As President Obama left the luncheon meeting with senators and was asked what went on, he replied that there was a frank discussion of a range of issues.
Such are the ways of Washington.