Jessica Simpson stands up Boehner (and Bush)

Jessica Simpson, the blond bombshell known for her MTV reality show "Newlyweds" with now-estranged husband Nick Lachey of Cincinnati, was in Washington yesterday to lobby Congress for Operation Smile, a group that provides reconstructive surgery to children with facial deformities.

She also had been expected to attend a Republican fundraiser on Capitol Hill with President Bush, where she was to be seated next to new House Majority Leader John Boehner. That is, until the long-legged singer abruptly declined to attend the event, saying she didn't want to get involved in politics.

Boehner, whose spokesman said a day earlier that the West Chester Republican wouldn't even recognize her, was apparently crestfallen.

"You know, I really feel like I got bagged," he told reporters.