House Speaker John Boehner reportedly had a colorful exchange with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last week.
“Go fuck yourself,” Boehner told Reid last Friday, pointing his finger at the majority leader, according to Politico.
Taken aback, Reid reportedly retorted: ”What are you talking about?”
According to Politico, Boehner then graciously reiterated his point for Reid’s benefit: “Go fuck yourself.”
The alleged outburst occurred in the heat of intense negotiations over a fiscal cliff deal and Reid had accused the House of “being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker” earlier in the week.
Asked to confirm Boehner’s exchange with Reid, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told The Daily Caller, “I’m afraid we’re not commenting on that.”
The office of the victim of Boehner’s reported “Go fuck yourself” attack did not return TheDC’s request for comment.
But whatever Boehner’s motivation for allegedly dropping the f-bomb on Reid, he’s hardly the only offender in recent political history. (RELATED: Will White House use ‘autopen’ again to sign ‘fiscal cliff’ bill?)
Appearing in the Senate for a photo session in 2004, then-Vice President Dick Cheney told Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy to “fuck yourself.”
Cheney, who was reportedly upset by Leahy’s criticism of Halliburton’s role in rebuilding Iraq, stood by his remarks to Leahy years later on Fox News Sunday.
“I thought he merited it at the time and we’ve since patched over that wound,” he told host Chris Wallace in 2008.
Watch:
Arizona Sen. John McCain, always rumored to have a healthy temper, reportedly exploded at Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn in 2007 during negotiations over comprehensive immigration reform because he felt that McCain was “parachut[ing]” into the negotiations from the presidential campaign trail.
“Fuck you!” McCain reportedly remarked in tone above a normal talking voice. “I know more about this than anyone else in the room.”
