Jobs Speech Becomes Latest Round in Scheduling Feud

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• By Jonathan Strong
• Roll Call Staff
• Aug. 31, 2011, 7:53 p.m.

Updated: 10:17 p.m.

When it comes to syncing calendars, President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner have had a scheduling problem long before Wednesday’s fight over the timing of the president’s upcoming jobs speech.

The latest dispute was resolved by Wednesday evening, with the president conceding to the Ohio Republican’s recommendation that he speak before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8, a day later than Obama had requested.

But the push and pull over the calendar started early in Boehner’s tenure as Speaker. Within weeks of taking control of the gavel, the Ohio Republican earned a reputation for declining invitations from Obama, including a state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao and a flight on Air Force One to attend a memorial ceremony for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz.

But Obama has also turned down invitations, such as a last-minute offer from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to lunch with Senate Republicans at the end of June. At the time, Obama didn’t even RSVP to another offer from Senate Democrats and instead invited Congressional leaders from both parties to the White House.

Rep. Elijah Cummings argued last year that it’s not lawmakers’ prerogative to turn down the president.

“When the president calls and asks a Member of Congress to meet at the White House, you go,” the Maryland Democrat said after Boehner and McConnell canceled their first postelection bipartisan meeting with the president because of “scheduling conflicts.” The meeting was later rescheduled.

The debt ceiling fight ramped up the stakes. “I couldn’t get a phone call returned,” Obama said in July. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel at one point relayed the meager length — three minutes — of a phone conversation the two did have.

But Wednesday’s brouhaha over Obama’s high-profile jobs speech escalated the discord.

Obama launched the first volley by asking to outline his new economic proposal before a joint session of Congress on the evening of Sept. 7, at the same time as a long-scheduled GOP presidential primary debate.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the timing had nothing to do with the GOP debate. “There are many other factors here,” he said.

But Republicans were angry. A spokesman for GOP presidential candidate and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who recently served as Obama’s ambassador to China, called it “desperate,” and a senior aide in the GOP House called it “grossly unnecessary.”

Then came the pushback from Boehner, who offered his “recommendation” to Obama that delaying his jobs speech 24 hours could avoid “logistical impediments.”

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