President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would enjoy sitting down with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and some of Kentucky's finest export.
“You know, actually, I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell," he told reporters in a White House press conference, when asked about his reluctance to spend more time with congressional leaders.
"He has always been very straightforward with me. To his credit, he has never made a promise he couldn’t deliver," Obama added of the Kentucky Republican, who will likely be elected the new majority leader of the U.S. Senate.
The frequent criticism of the president, at least in establishment circles, is that he doesn't spend enough time wining and dining members of Congress. Obama is openly dismissive of the barb, rejecting the notion that spending more time with Republicans on the golf course, for example, would produce any lasting political compromise in a hyperpartisan Congress.
"Some folks still don't think I spend enough time with Congress. 'Why don't you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?' they ask. Really? Why don't you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?" he joked at the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner.
McConnell’s re-election campaign responded in kind shortly after the joke, tweeting a photo of the senator sitting at a bar offering the president a seat, pointedly with a waiting glass of wine.
The Distilled Spirits Council and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour made light of Obama's remarks on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
A request for comment from McConnell's office about the prospects of a Bourbon Summit between the two men was not immediately returned.
Watch Obama's remarks above.
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