“My buddy, Latham”

Ohio Congressman John Boehner just took over as speaker of the U.S. House.  During his speech to mark the occasion, he mentioned one other member of the U.S. House — Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican from Ames.

The two are best friends.  Read this Radio Iowa story about their friendship.

…“I guess the benefit for anyone in Iowa is the fact that I can have his ear, but that’s not why we’re friends,” Latham said this morning during a telephone interview with Radio Iowa. “We just get along.  Our families are very similar. Our backgrounds are similar and so we just seemed to hit it off and spent a lot of time together.”

Latham’s ability to keep his mouth shut may be the key to the enduring friendship. “It’s not something that I talk about,” Latham said. “It’s just something that’s evolved over time.”

Boehner’s shout-out this afternoon was brief.  After a series of acknowledgements to guests in the House chamber, Boehner said: “my buddy, Latham.”