Capitol Hill Pest Control

John Boehner, who succeeded career exterminator Tom DeLay, is being bugged by insect metaphors.

The House Minority Leader told a reporter the Wall Street reform bill was like using a nuclear weapon to kill an ant and was stump-jumped by the White House in Wisconsin.

"He compared the financial crisis to an ant," the President told a crowd. "The same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs...that cost people their homes and their lives' savings."

Meanwhile, from the other direction, GOP Congressman turned cable host Joe Scarborough says Boehner is not a busy bee, that "you can see him around town...Every Republican I talk to says John Boehner, by 5 or 6 o’clock at night, you can see him at bars. He is not a hard worker.”

If Boehner is laid back about legislating, he is a grasshopper for fund-raising, attending a daily average of 1.25 such events so far this year, while finding time between tanning sessions to sign a petition to repeal health care reform in its entirety.

At the same time, there are signs of disorder in the GOP's own hive. Boehner's sidekick Eric Cantor is creating a buzz among the WASP set, with his scurrying, according to a House colleague, to become "the first Jewish Republican something...first Jewish Republican speaker, the first Jewish Republican vice president or first Jewish Republican president.”

If all this insect behavior persists, calling back DeLay for pest control advice may not be enough. Sounds like a case for the bio-exorcist from "Beetlejuice."