New White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten is working the precincts to start off on the right foot with House leadership.

Midmorning yesterday, Bolten huddled with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in the Speaker’s suite in the Capitol. (Earlier in the day, the House and Senate Republican leaders breakfasted with the president at the White House.)

New House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a one-on-one with Bolten on Monday at the White House mess, over a lunch of chicken quesadillas that lasted more than an hour. “We talked about a variety of things,” Boehner said.

He said that he and Bolten have known each other for a long time.

“I think he is a very capable manager,” Boehner said, “and he was doing what a good manager would do, and that is to assess where he thinks the White House operation is and how it can be improved, where are the strong points, where are the weak points and what did I think about all those things.

“And so, as you are all pretty much well aware, I told him.”

• Durbin to Bush: lift phone. Late Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, in a pen-and-pad in the chamber’s Press Gallery delivered an unusually realistic assessment of the prospects for the immigration bill advanced to the Senate floor from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Immigration proposals before the Senate cannot be considered only in the context of what one chamber may do. If there is any chance of getting a bill to President Bush, the House and Senate have to find a way to bridge what is a wide divide over a guest-worker program and other contentious provisions.

Durbin, a member of the Judiciary Committee, had whipped the bill and revealed that between four and five Democrats are expected to peel off the bipartisan product produced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and a working group of about 10 senators.

Republicans will have to deliver more than 20 votes, Durbin said.

He does not want a few-vote win for an immigration bill because it will cripple the Senate’s hand in conference.

“I don’t want to limp across the finish line and then go to conference,” he said. He used a cocker-spaniel-versus-pit-bull metaphor, with the House conferees in the stronger role of top dog.

This is a rare case in which most Senate Dems are on the same page as President Bush on a controversial bill.

Durbin said Bush needs to do more to carry out his end of the deal. Said Durbin to Bush: “Lift the phone.”

As each day passes, it seems the option of doing nothing on immigration this election year is gaining more traction.

• Hastert on the road: Meanwhile … catching up on the Speaker’s end of fundraising travel, last March 27 and 28 he hit Cincinnati and Covington, Ky., for funders to benefit Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ky.) and Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio.).

On March 29, Hastert was the host for ROMP III, to raise money for targeted House races. He capped the week with a Hastert for Congress reception St. Charles, Ill., in his district, where the draw name was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it