President Obama meets with House Republicans on Capitol Hill

Larger version of photo, taken by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) President Obama visited House Republicans on their own turf this afternoon, trekking from the White House to Capitol Hill to meet with the House GOP and take their questions in an hour-long Q&A session. The meeting was held behind closed doors, but details are leaking out, including this, from Politico:

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) ' the Republican Policy Committee chairman ' brought up a familiar concern for House Republicans: that Obama is always campaigning.

He asked about Organizing for Action's (OFA) meeting. He complained that Obama called Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) before Boehner on election night. Obama said that wasn't true and that he had called Boehner, but Boehner had gone to sleep, according to a source familiar with the meeting. Boehner said the president was right, the source said.

Lankford argued that Obama is so focused on defeating House Republicans instead of 'saving the next generation' from debt problems.

What a perfectly idiotic question'and how fitting that it come from the head of the so-called Republican Policy Committee. It's the kind of delusional navel gazing we've come to expect from Republicans: a question rooted in equal parts falsehood and self-absorption. As even Boehner acknowledged, the premise of Lankford's question wasn't accurate. But even if you set that aside, why is Lankford more worried about whether President Obama wants to put him out of a job in 2014 than about what he and Republicans can do in 2013 to work with the president to create more jobs for Americans?

And as you'll see below the fold, Lankford wasn't the only one focused on inside-baseball political trivia.