Obama sends McConnell a note on Loretta Lynch
Who says President Obama and Mitch McConnell don't get along?
The Senate majority leader said Sunday that Republicans and the Obama administration are working together on free trade, and that the president even sent him a nice note for his confirmation vote on behalf of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
In a speech at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston, McConnell referred to the past relationship between the late liberal senator from Massachusetts and the conservative Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah.
"A lot of folks like to joke about the odd couple that was Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch," McConnell said. "But I think Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama may have them outdone."
The Republican leader added: "I had to warn reporters not to faint last week before offering the president some praise on trade. I'm even getting handwritten notes from the president these days. He sent one the other day to thank me for supporting the nomination of Loretta Lynch."
McConnell was one of ten Republican senators to vote for Lynch's confirmation.
Things aren't all sweetness and light, however. McConnell -- who early in Obama's tenure famously said he wanted to make him a one-term president -- still disagrees with the administration over taxes, regulations, health care, climate change, and a variety of other policies.
"In his speech, McConnell was a realist, arguing that his relationship with Obama hardly comes close to the genial bond between Kennedy and Hatch who repeatedly combined forces on legislation.
"'What we do have, however, is common policy ground, on an issue we both think is good for the country. So the Republican majority is going to work with President Obama to get this done, even if we have to do it over the objections of his own party.'"