(From Joel Connelly for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Online)
Inslee, Larsen dribble with Obama
It could be called another Washington, D.C., power game except that bodies actually did collide, key players were physically faked out, and the president really did know how to put on a move to score.
Reps. Jay Inslee and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., were part of a bipartisan House basketball team that traveled down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday to test its skills on President Obama’s newly installed outdoor court.
The 44th president transformed the White House tennis court to make room for his beloved pickup basketball games.
“We were runnin’ and gunnin’, crashing up and down: It wasn’t gentlemanly. We did what we had to do,” Inslee said of the experience.
“He (Obama) took me to the cleaners with a classic crossover dribble move: He’s fast, fit, a great passer. He burned me.”
The result, not uncommon in our nation’s capital, was a standoff between the White House and Capitol Hill.
The president’s men won the first game. The congressmen took the second. The two branches of government then mixed teams and played four more games.
The executive branch of government fielded a formidable lineup.
Obama loves the sport: His brother-in-law is basketball coach at Oregon State. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was co-captain of Harvard’s varsity team, and travels the country to tournaments. The president’s “body man,” aide Reggie Love, played varsity basketball and football at Duke.
The House team featured Rep. Heath Shuler, D-North Carolina, once quarterback for the Washington Redskins. As for motivation and standing ground, it enlisted a pair of Republicans, Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois and Arizona’s outspoken conservative Rep. Jeff Flake.
“He is a dynamite baseline shooter,” Inslee said of Flake, who has led budget uprisings from the other side of the aisle.
Shuler and “Downtown” Duncan were the perimeter shooting stars. Obama’s game was to fake and drive for the net.
Washington state is known for fielding political players on the House of Representatives basketball court.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., used to get physical with a young, ambitious (and sometimes insufferable) House colleague, known at the time as Rep. Albert Gore, Jr. The former U-Dub lineman was frequently in foul trouble, and was heard to shout “Huskies!” after scoring.
Then-Rep. Rod Chandler, R-Wash., while preaching bipartisanship, was also in frequent foul trouble.
Inslee did show deference at one point Thursday. He called a foul on himself for guarding Obama too closely.
Rick Larsen took an elbow in the nose, but no foul was called.
The power players on the president’s team also included U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Why wasn’t Dicks on the court?
Turns out “Stormin Norman” was negotiating with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to work out final details of the budget for Salazar’s department. “DiFi” is herself nearly six feet tall, but confines herself to using elbows during playing political games.
The court experience left Inslee with renewed hope about a major issue on the floor in Congress.
“A guy who can put on moves like he did down the middle should be able to do the same on health care reform,” Inslee joked.
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