Boehner Plays Golf, While GOP Continues Protest

August 7, 2008 11:19 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C.(AHN) - While House Republicans have been taking turns making speeches before a darkened and empty floor since last Friday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has been playing golf, according to the Washington Post.

The Republican leader has been absent since the GOP protest began when Congress adjourned for the summer recess last week. He might join colleagues on Friday.

Boehner spent some time at the Wetherington Golf & Country Club in West Chester, Ohio this week, the Post said, citing scores posted online by Boehner himself. He also participated in a golf tournament held in Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio to raise funds for his political action committee, Freedom Project.

Asked about the golf games, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told the Post the game in West Chester was most likely held "over the weekend," and that canceling the Muirfield tournament "would have cost tens of thousands of dollars for Republican candidates across the country."

Boehner issued a memo along with Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) on Sunday asking his Republican colleagues to "make a stand" and join the floor protest until their request for an emergency session to hold a vote on offshore drilling is followed.

"It's not a request we make lightly. But the American people are suffering... We must continue to make a stand until the Speaker complies," Boehner wrote.

Boehner had asked Pelosi in a letter on Friday to call for a special session, saying, "You have the power to call Congress back into session at any moment to deal with issues of urgent national importance."

Republicans want to end to the moratorium on exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Democrats argue that oil companies should first drill on the 68 million acres of land already leased to them, and that excessive speculation in oil markets is the root cause of rising oil prices.

Pelosi has also been pushing to authorize a drawdown from the nation's Strategic Oil Reserve; she sent a letter to Boehner on Wednesday saying doing so would give relief to Americans within 10 days.

Offshore drilling is banned by a legislative moratorium adopted in 1981 and an executive order issued by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The executive order was lifted early last month by President George W. Bush.

The highest Republican to attend the protest is House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-FL), who attended Wednesday's talkathon. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was also present that day and said in a press conference, "There will come a vote in early September when there will be an up-or-down vote in the House... and at that point there will be a majority in the House in favor of drilling."