Billmon: Tom Turtle

The snapper eats invertebrates, carrion, aquatic plants, fish, birds and small mammals. It is an excellent swimmer: Individuals displaced 2 miles have returned to their capture sites within several hours. Snappers strike viciously when lifted from water or teased and can inflict a serious bite.

The Audubon Society
Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians
1979

Particular politicians often remind me of particular animals. Dick Cheney, for example, is obviously a pit bull. Joe Biden is a badger -- or when I'm really mad at him, a skunk. Denny Hastert is a grizzled old polar bear -- who needs to go on a diet. And so on.

But offhand, I can't think of anyone (in the politics business or anywhere else for that matter) who reminds me so much of a particular species as Tom DeLay does. And that species is Chelydra serpentina -- the common snapping turtle.

The physical resemblance itself is striking: