Sen. James M. Inhofe is one conservative guy, and he is proud of it, trumpeting vote-tracking organizations that peg him as the most right-wing in the chamber. And yet, the Oklahoma Republican has an equally proud history of working with some of his most liberal colleagues on bipartisan legislation. 

As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he and Rhode Island’s Jack Reed, the panel’s ranking Democrat, constructed the highly popular defense authorization bill the last two years. And before that, he worked quite productively with California Democrat Barbara Boxer, the yin to Inhofe’s yang on environmental issues, as leaders of the Environment and Public Works Committee. This, despite Inhofe writing a book that claimed global warming was, as the title attested, “The Greatest Hoax.” And yet, “We prided ourselves in getting things done,” he says. 

So how does Inhofe find ways to break bread with people from the opposite side of the political spectrum? “You can let that unite you. You can make a joke out of it, you can joke around about it,” he says, and then you get down to business on the things you can rally around, which turns out to be quite a lot of things. 

In the latest Political Theater podcast, Inhofe is candid about his friendships with Reed, the retired Boxer and other colleagues on Capitol Hill. And he is equally candid about others he is less impressed with, including Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, a presidential candidate and member of the Armed Services panel whom he regards as a bit of a show horse, and two Republican colleagues, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah, who have done their own showboating on the floor that has led to Senate leaders cutting short the consequential legislating of measures like the Pentagon policy bill. 

And, not for nothing, he explains the origins of his middle name “Mountain,” which involves family history, as well as a dollop of our own country’s immigration patterns. 

Show notes: 

• Inhofe Armed Services leadership to depart drastically From McCain’s
• Boxer’s advice for dealing with Trump: Look at me and Inhofe
• Inhofe insists man can’t change the climate
• Drums of looming Iran war resound in Congress
• Inhofe, frustrated by defense bill amendments, may favor rules changes
• Boxer, Inhofe want to avoid highway bill trick or treat
• Armchair-quarterbacking Jim Inhofe’s power play
• Inhofe makes highway bill sales pitch to House
• Inhofe open to ‘exaggerated’ war budget
• ‘My way or the highway’: An approach to the NDAA debate
• Inhofe returns from Asia with warnings about China, North Korea