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Democrats and the president have had
a field day with Boehner’s comments on
the Wall Street reform bill. AP

“For someone who asked to be held to the highest standard, President Obama spends an awful lot of time making excuses and whining about others,” Boehner said Thursday. “With the president failing to lead, Democrats are rushing out of town to watch fireworks and eat macaroni salad.”

He also answered in the affirmative when asked whether Obama’s comments mean the president is worried about Republicans taking the House.

The top House Republican also brushed off criticism from his side of the aisle. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican representative from Florida, called him “lazy” and “disengaged at best” Wednesday morning.

“I’ve always believed you only tease the ones you love,” he said. “If you go back over the last 16 years and look at my schedule, you’ll be hard pressed to find a night when I wasn’t doing events for my colleagues and my candidates.”

Democrats and the president have had a field day with Boehner’s comments on the Wall Street reform bill, which cleared the House last night. 

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published Tuesday, Boehner compared the financial reform bill to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon” sparking intense criticism from Democrats who labeled him “out of touch” with ordinary Americans. Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn all criticized Boehner on Wednesday for his remarks.

At his news conference, Boehner said he “was not referencing the financial crisis at all” when he said the Wall Street reform bill was like nuking an “ant,” and asserted that he had been talking about “what it would take to fix the problem, and fixing the problem would have meant doing something about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

He quickly shifted to Republican talking points, criticizing the president for failing to pay attention to the BP oil skill, to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to cut spending and to create jobs.

He championed a report he released yesterday that contains numbers on unemployment and jobs and hits Democrats for sabotaging funding for the war in Afghanistan.

“Even funding for our troops has been held up while Democrats try to get a ‘stimulus’ pay day out of it,” he said ahead of a key vote on the war funding bill.