CNN Political Ticker

Obama makes birthday joke to Boehner

(CNN) – Kicking off a meeting with congressional leaders Friday, President Barack Obama joked with House Speaker John Boehner about his birthday.

After a statement welcoming House and Senate party leaders to the White House, Obama said, "Excuse me, there is one other point I want to make."

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The president continued: "My understanding is tomorrow is Speaker Boehner's birthday so for those of you who want to wish him a happy birthday, we are not going to embarrass him with a cake because we didn't know how many candles were needed."

"Yeah right," said Boehner nudging the president.

Instead of a cake it appears Obama bought the House speaker, who will be 63 on Saturday, a rather pricey bottle of wine - Poggio Antico's 1997 vintage brunello.

Boehner's press secretary Brendan Buck tweeted a picture of the present Friday:

CNN's Dana Davidsen and Adam Aigner-Treworgy contributed to this report.