Obama hasn't spoken to Boehner for weeks

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A White House spokesman said Monday he doesn't think President Barack Obama has talked with House Speaker John Boehner in weeks.

The Ohio Republican said during the weekend his relationship with the Democratic president has turned "a little bit frosty" since they played golf this summer. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters he thinks Obama "continues to have a solid relationship" with Boehner but doesn't think they have spoken since Obama called the speaker after Congress passed three free-trade agreements Oct. 12.

"I believe -- I know they spoke when the president called after the passage of the free-trade agreements, but I don't know that they've spoken since," Carney said.

Carney said the two had previously spent "a lot of time together in private" trying to work out a "so-called grand bargain to achieve substantial balanced, long-term deficit and debt reduction." But, he said, Obama thinks Boehner is boxed in by partisanship.

"The president believes that the speaker genuinely wanted to do that, but that in the end it wasn't possible politically for him to do that," Carney said.