Saturday, June 25, 2011
COLUMBUS
Gov. John Kasich isn’t sharing any details of what he, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker John Boehner talked about during a recent golf outing.
The matchup, earlier this month, pitted Kasich and Biden against Obama and Boehner. The latter reportedly defeated the former on the final hole.
“Vow of silence,” Kasich said in response to questions about the foursome’s discussions. But the governor is using the occasion earlier this month to tout the role sports can play in creating a more bipartisan atmosphere among lawmakers.
“When I was in Washington, we used to play basketball at 4 o’clock every afternoon,” Kasich told reporters last week, pointing to a scar above his eye where a fellow congressman — some “wackadoodle” from California — head butted him during one such matchup. “... Republicans and Democrats pounding each other in the gym, acting like we were 20 years younger than we are.”
Kasich, who has made more than his share of enemies since taking office earlier this year, said those afternoon basketball games prompted participants to “stop treating people like they’re just the enemy.”
“This is a real problem with American politics today,” he said. “It’s like digging in, and if you wear a different uniform, then I don’t like you and it’s my job to trash you. That’s just terrible.”
Better relationships
Basketball, the governor said, helped to establish better relationships among lawmakers of different political stripes.
“We’d laugh, yuck it up, spend time together,” Kasich said. “And then we’d go up on the House floor. And then all of a sudden, instead of looking at somebody as the enemy, they’re kind of your friend.”
He added, “We need that in Ohio as well. Frankly, we need to have more interaction, more fun.”
Back to golfing with Obama: Kasich said the match wasn’t about powerful leaders banging heads over policy issues.
“We were just four hackers yucking it up,” he said. “You know, a little trash talking, a little ‘I didn’t know you could hit it that far,’ the first shot doesn’t count. It was a good thing, and maybe in some ways it sets an example for people to be able to get together.”
What all that means is that Ohio lawmakers — the Republicans and Democrats who are locked in bitter battles over election law, budget matters and other controversial issues — should find more time to socialize and participate in friendly sporting competitions.
“People can talk and lay down their shields and kind of treat each other as human beings,” Kasich said.
That doesn’t mean Democrats are suddenly going to see the light and embrace collective bargaining reform, or Republicans are going to do an about face on tax increases.
But, using Kasich’s reasoning, the political players involved would at least be more respectful of other’s opinions.
Even the wackadoodles.
Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.