WASHINGTON — On a Friday evening, hours after the House adjourned for summer, John Boehner was holding court on the patio of a favorite Italian restaurant on Capitol Hill. The scene was a still-life of old-school Washington power: Plates of veal and pasta, half-emptied drink glasses, cigarette butts in an ashtray.

The Ohio Republican who could very well replace Nancy Pelosi as the next speaker of the House is vintage “Mad Men” — a grownup, as those close to him put it, who enjoys a drink, a smoke and round of golf without apology. His suits are sharp. His voice is deep. And then there is that tan, which defies Washington sensibilities.

Yet the Rat Pack persona disguises one of Washington’s most enduring politicians, a savvy political survivor who is shaping President Barack Obama’s legacy — whether his Republican Party retakes the House majority this November or not.

Over the past two years, Boehner has succeeded in helping to define the Obama era in ways that seemed unimaginable when the popular president was swept into office. Then, Washington predicted the end of the GOP.

Instead, the House minority leader has helped reinvigorate the party by directing his thinned Republican ranks in a disciplined chorus of opposition. They don’t merely say “no” to the White House agenda, but, “Hell, no!” — as Boehner put it during a final floor speech on health care reform.

If Republicans win the 39 seats they need to gain control of the House this fall, Boehner faces a pivotal choice: Will he emerge as the consummate dealmaker many know him to be, working with Obama to show frustrated voters that Washington can govern?

Or will Boehner, under pressure from a more conservative House and a tea party-electorate, maintain a fiercely partisan strategy in hopes of making Obama a one-term president in 2012?

“My sense is if Boehner had an opportunity to do so, he would act responsibly,” said Ronald Peters, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center. “I don’t know if those around him would go in that direction.”

Boehner’s desire to be speaker swirls about him these days. He tries to keep himself in check. But at the same time, “Boehner for Speaker” mugs and T-shirts are selling for $15 each on the GOP website BoehnerforSpeaker.com.

“I’ve watched the four speakers I’ve served under,” Boehner recently told reporters. “I’ve seen the good philosophies, and I’ve seen the bad ones. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on how I would do this job.”

Then again, if the GOP falls short of taking back the majority, observers say, Boehner’s future is uncertain. Boehner declines to say whether he would remain as the leader of the minority.

Like so many lawmakers before him, Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner) came to Congress to change the institution, not become it. First elected in 1990, he quickly established himself in the so-called Gang of Seven Republicans who instigated House banking and post office reforms and shook up established Washington.

Boehner helped craft the 1994 “Contract with America,” and won the No. 4 leadership position under then-Speaker Newt Gingrich after Republicans took over the House that fall for the first time in 40 years.

Boehner, though, is no Gingrich.

Boehner does not dispense the deep thoughts that spilled from Gingrich, a college professor and still a formidable force in national politics.

While Gingrich was guided by the Contract, a 10-step manifesto on smaller government and personal responsibility, exactly what a Speaker Boehner would do remains a work in progress.

Boehner promises his No. 1 priority would be to “repeal Obamacare,” the health care overhaul that is the administration’s centerpiece legislative accomplishment. He also vows institutional reforms to open the House floor to debate, letting the best ideas win.

Rank-and-file Republicans are anxious to conduct extensive hearings into the Obama administration, using their subpoena power in confrontations that could resemble the Democratic investigations of former President George W. Bush or Republican attacks on Bill Clinton.

Beyond that, the GOP agenda gets murky. Republicans say they are on a listening tour this summer, asking Americans for input to what some have dubbed the Contract from America, an update to the 1994 legislative blueprint. Details are expected in September.

Boehner’s own legislative career is highlighted by his bipartisan work with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, on the “No Child Left Behind” education measure in 2002. That was at a period when Boehner had fallen from leadership. But with his return as Republican leader, he has shifted to a more vocally partisan role.

One of 12 children of an Ohio tavern owner, Boehner is a former plastics salesman, a Catholic who prefers the traditional Republican ideals of smaller government and lower taxes to heady discourse and moral crusades that have at times overtaken his party.

“He’s a conservative — he’s not an ultra-conservative,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a friend and regular golf partner.

Few doubt that if Republicans take over the House, Boehner will become speaker. The social conservatives in his ranks may wish he was more like them, and the younger lawmakers may bristle at his outwardly laid-back approach.

But few seem likely to successfully challenge the leader. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the ambitious young Republican whip, poses the greatest leadership challenge, but those who know him expect Cantor to wait his turn.

Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, said Boehner’s ability to stare down the Obama agenda with unified Republican opposition has left him “looking pretty smart.”

Yet governing in the majority is a heavier lift than criticizing from the opposition. Boehner likes to say he would lead in the style of Woody Hayes, the legendary football coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

“ ’Three yards and a cloud of dust,’ keep moving the ball down the field,” said Boehner, 60. “It doesn’t have to be a touchdown pass every time.”

It is exactly this half-loaf strategy that runs into conflict with more ideological Republicans — both in and out of Washington — who are likely to view the party’s ascent as a mandate for swifter change.

“The incoming class is much more unified,” said Cantor, “because right now the issue set is so much more pronounced.”

At that, Boehner and Obama have not exactly hit it off. They are without the personal or generational bonds that can create bipartisan miracles in Washington. Republicans feel the Obama administration never took their legislative input seriously. They think he will need to now.

“Anything they wanted, they would need the House,” Cantor said.

Boehner has arrived at this moment, colleagues say, because he is nothing if not a likable man.

“Boehner likes to project the image of being more laid back, kind of clubby and hail-fellow-well-met — and he is all those things,” said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the former House Republican campaign chairman, noting that legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas would assemble lawmakers after hours for a drink and a chat.

“But anybody who doesn’t think he’s superbly disciplined, very focused and absolutely single-minded in his determination to restore the Republican majority, and to drive that majority in the direction he believes is right, is severely underestimating him.”

———