Joking aside, the president has done little outreach to McConnell except for the perfunctory call following the Boston terror attacks two weeks ago.

“I’m not so sure the president was joking; to some extent, I think it was a fair assessment when [Obama said], ‘Yo, have a drink with Mitch McConnell, no you.’ It’s gotten to that point, Capitol Hill is a pretty entrenched place and neither the president nor congressional Republicans have the power to prevail on any issue,” GOP strategist Ford O’Connell said.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told The Hill that unless the Speaker and President said “hi” at the George W. Bush presidential library opening last week in Dallas, “the last time they spoke – other than the call about Boston – was the bipartisan, bicameral meeting about the sequester.”

The meeting took place on March 1, the day that $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts took place.

Since then, the president has attempted to reach out to rank-and-file Republicans on Capitol Hill.