Wildlife: Debugging the Capitol

Debugging the Capitol

As sneaky as a PAC, as enduring as Claude Pepper, as annoying as an overzealous lobbyist, the unelected American cockroach is surely the most resilient resident of Capitol Hill. From the Rotunda to the farthest hearing room, congressional buildings are overrun with the scurrying pests, which seem harder to stamp out than waste, fraud and abuse. Efforts to exterminate them have failed miserably, so Congressman Silvio Conte has declared a war against what he says is a "1 trillion-strong" invasion of the hallowed halls. The irrepressible Massachusetts Republican has launched a "Conte Crush-a- Cockroach Campaign," the slogan of which seems to...

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