At a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor at the St. Regis Hotel in downtown Washington, Boehner said the first three things he would do would be to repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul bill, block any attempts to pass cap-and-trade energy legislation and keep taxes low.

He also revealed he has three brothers who are unemployed, has no immediate plans to quit smoking and portrays himself as more of a straight talker who means what he says — something he’s pitching as a contrast to President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The Ohio Republican has been eyeing the speaker’s office for about two decades — ever since he passed up a 1992 opportunity to run for an open Senate seat — and he is beginning to peel the curtain on his elusive image.

Boehner is trying to strike a bipartisan tone — one that is likely to be mocked by Democrats who remember him as allowing his Republican colleagues to egg on protestors as the majority tried to pass health care overhaul legislation.

Yet, the picture Boehner would like to project is that of his time as chairman of the Education and Workforce committee. He said that if he could pass No Child Left Behind with Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) anyone could work together. He said he would work with “anybody on the other side of the aisle.”

And he seems to favor incremental progress instead of giant pieces of legislation.

“You can’t succeed, no professional football team succeeds at throwing Hail Mary passes on every play,” Boehner said.

He also began revealing how he plans to run the House, should the GOP win back the majority — something he’s largely steered clear of in past months.

He said he wants bills posted online at least three days in advance, and he wants cameras in the Rules Committee room. He also insists he won’t be like past Republican speakers, vowing to be candid and straightforward in his dealings with the public and media.

“I am not Barack Obama and I am not Nancy Pelosi,” he said. “I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. And those of you who have dealt with me over the years know that that’s a fact and it will remain a fact.”

And like many Democrats and Republicans of late, Boehner bemoaned the state of Washington politics. The House, he said, is devoid of legislators and many are merely “members.”

“This is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body in the history of the world,” he said. “But there’s very little deliberation, there’s very little, very few legislators among the 435 members. And I really think that members are being short-changed. I came out of the Ohio Legislature, a place where it was a legislature and you were taught and you learned how to become a legislator. And I think that we need legislators in the U.S. Capitol.”

Should Republicans win the majority, Boehner would need to work with President Barack Obama, a man who has been mocking Boehner publicly for weeks.

“I don’t know which President Obama I’ll be dealing with,” Boehner said. “If it’s the one I dealt with over the past 18 months, while it’s been pleasant, none of the ideas [that] he’s asked us for that we’ve provided have been adopted, and they’ve had a go-it-alone approach for 18 months.”

To be sure, Boehner is still parroting some well-worn talking points that even make Republicans cringe: he asked where the jobs are (his favorite moniker from the past year) and said that “there isn’t a race in America [Republicans] can’t win.”

Boehner also shared some of his personal side during lunch with reporters. He revealed that three of his brothers — he has 11 siblings — are unemployed. He said he doesn’t know whether they’ve found jobs.

He hates being politically labeled — that’s why he avoids joining caucuses. For example, earlier this week he passed up the opportunity to join the House Tea Party Caucus.

But he still has the thorny issue of the conservative wing of his party, which hardly trusts him and sees establishment Republicans as being nearly as bad as Democrats. The GOP has taken the plan to “walk amongst” tea partiers, and Boehner touted his experience of speaking to the group in California and Ohio.

Some folks at these rallies, Boehner said, are “anarchists who want to kill all of us in public office,” but some are Democrats, others disenfranchised Republicans and most of them are angry at the way the country is heading.

Boehner also gave a clue to what Republican policies he doesn’t support. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the top Republican on the Budget committee, laid out his roadmap for the future — a 75-year plan that alters entitlements and Social Security. Boehner said “parts of it are well done, other parts I’ve got some doubts about in terms of how good the policy is.”

But Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker from Georgia who was once a Boehner ally, gave the Ohioan a moniker by which he’s governed and how he plans to continue: “listen, learn, help and lead.”

“[I]t really encapsulates a management strategy that I have used for many years,” he said.