Forget beer and/or Slurpee summits. In a Post Partisan blog entry from last night reprinted in today's Washington Post, writer Jonathan Capehart suggested President Obama and presumptive-Speaker John Boehner (R) should forge a bond over cigarette breaks during legislative negotiations:
Regular smoke breaks on the Truman Balcony, at Camp David or wherever they choose to sneak them might be what's needed to bridge the partisan divide and ratchet down the heated rhetoric in Washington. Throw in a glass of merlot and we might have the makings of, if not a beautiful bipartisan friendship, then a working relationship that makes compromises or consensus easier to reach.
I will deserve every bit of criticism I get for encouraging the president to keep smoking. But for the sake of bipartisanship, the Democratic Party (not to mention his 2012 reelection ambitions) and the nation, I urge Obama not to give up smoking just yet. Besides, there hasn't been a hint that he's having much luck doing so -- or that Boehner has any desire to stop. So why not put their dirty and unhealthy habit to good use?
Of course I tend to think Capehart's more concerned about Obama's reelection chances, not bipartisan bonhomie, going up in smoke. Nonetheless it's interesting to see such a politically incorrect recommendation coming from a mainstream media journalist.
