If House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) is interested in holding on to his primo office suite just off the chamber floor, I hope he watched the New York Giants beat the Green Bay Packers last weekend.

Frozen field. Frozen ball. Frozen everything. Nasty crosswinds. Underdogs. Loud Green Bay crowd. And confidence-shattering deflation when the field-goal kicker missed a sure game-winner at the end of regulation play.

But there they were. Overtime. Another kick attempt. Three points. Game over. History made.

The Giants were in a position to win against the favored Packers because of bold, scrappy play-calling by coach Tom Coughlin, whose job security was openly discussed by everyone in the sports world this year.

That was then. This is now. New contract in hand, Coughlin is taking his team to the Super Bowl — and Boehner should ponder this if he hopes similarly to lead his team out of the frozen wastes and into sunnier political climes.

Making up a 30-seat deficit is a lot, even for a savvy, well-liked veteran play-caller like Boehner. And as House Republicans head to their yearly retreat, Boehner’s assistant coaches are doubtless counseling him to play it safe, bide his time, let the political winds blow themselves out and then hit back in 2010 when the ghosts of a first-term Democratic president are haunting the midterm landscape.

It happened in 1994. President Bill Clinton’s 1993 missteps on gays in the military and the Hillary healthcare debacle gave Newt Gingrich and his merry band more than enough ammo as they plotted their takeover. Team Gingrich also came up with what many then considered a simplistic, naïve, gimmicky X’s and 0’s-loaded playbook. It was called the “Contract with America.”

Boehner’s playbook today seems to call for a dull turf-churning ground game, envisioning a few forced turnovers from Team Pelosi, and great Republican care to avoid voter penalties incurred by seeming “partisan.”

In short, no long passes, no fancy plays, and good strong defense. But, what happens if John McCain continues to pick up steam, Clinton or Obama stumble, and the “can’t-lose” Democratic storyline hits a self-imposed writers’ strike? What if the House GOP’s worst-case scenario presents itself? What if McCain actually wins the presidency?

Despite the bellyaching of Tom DeLay and Rush Limbaugh, suppose the campaign-finance-reforming, anti-pork Arizonan gets a mandate from the people?  

This should prompt thoughts of a new playbook when Team Boehner huddles this week in West Virginia. In fact, the majority leaders might be wise to consider something really fresh.

What if he were to declare that under his captaincy, anyone who wants to keep playing for the GOP Team must sign a Contract with Taxpayers foreswearing earmarks in the name of fiscal sanity?

Boehner has never taken earmarks himself, and so he has credibility on this issue. And after news cycles dominated by ex-Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and current Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), he surely believes the system stinks.

At the moment, Boehner is keeping quiet, presumably in hope of keeping the K Street crowd enthused and retaining appropriators’ support for his leadership. But his leadership is on the line in the coming election anyway, and he is leaving the outcome of the game to the political weather.

But it doesn’t much matter to GOP appropriators whether the Republicans or Democrats are in charge, as long as they get their 40 percent share of the gate.

So there may be less advantage to Boehner than he thinks in keeping his head down, wimping out, playing his inside game, and hoping for the best.

Come Jan. 20, 2009, if President-elect McCain is standing center stage on the Capitol’s West Front and the House GOP leaders have done nothing but play it “safe,” you never know — some young, gun-slinging McCainiac member of the conference might feel cocky enough to try and seize some of Boehner’s Capitol real estate for himself.

The minority leader might think now about what it would be like to clean out his locker, pick up his gear, and schlep it over to the Cannon building on some frozen winter day. He can get the directions from former coaches Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert.