He insisted that he and his democratic allies in congress were ' busy with a mop cleaning up somebody else 's mess , ' alluding to the litany of pressing problems he inherited from his republican predecessor george w. bush .
After 34 years as a retailing executive , mr. winterhalter says , he thinks like a manager : ' I don 't like to mop the floor ' but prefer to supervise others .
Ms. winterhalter says she likes to jump in and perform tasks herself : ' I like to mop the floor , and I think I can do a better job ' than many employees .