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There is a place, not so far away, where you can visit a political age of yesteryear. It's an enclave deep in the heart of the U.S. Capitol, and to find it all you must do is follow your nose through the halls of Congress and around the House chamber. Sooner or later you are bound to stumble into the Speakers' Lobby. Now, my friends, you're in flavor country.
The powers that be in your U.S. House have just made yet more encroachments into the ever-shrinking universe of public spaces where smoking is still allowed. Beginning this week, lighting up is no longer permitted in the outdoor courtyards, garages, lobbies, foyers, etc., on the House side of Capitol Hill. Smokers are now largely confined to two glassed-in, highly ventilated hamster cages in the adjacent office buildings.
But not all smokers.
If you're the sentimental type and you yearn for the days of the smoke-filled political salon -- or if you're simply a militant die-hard -- you can breathe easy. For there remains a hazy sanctuary for the unreconstructed, unrepentant pol who can puff away without concern for the second-hand smoke he is generating.
The Speakers' Lobby is the anteroom of the House chamber, and to enter is to be transported to another era of back room bosses and political machines. Decorum is the uniform of the day here, and even now you may not be admitted unless appropriately attired. Baroque portraits of long-forgotten House speakers hang in a clutter along the walls, their mutton-chopped jowls immortalized in oil. They look down upon a clubby scene that is probably not much changed from how it appeared back in their time: congressmen lounge in wingback chairs, feet up, smoking cigars or cigarettes and producing nimbus, carcinogenic formations of tobacco smoke. If you are a non-smoker or you're pregnant, enter at your own risk. It is the perfect anachronism and almost subversive in its political incorrectness.
There's new majority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, a longtime regular of the smoking klatsch on the Republican side of the room, still popping off the floor during votes to light up another Barclay. Boehner is button-holed more these days, supplicants interrupting his smoke break to petition for this favor or that. Rep. Sherwood Boelhert, R-N.Y., is another regular. Over on the Democratic side Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., can typically be found sitting alone with his nose in a newspaper and his teeth chomping on a gigantic Churchill. There are many other members of the brotherhood (I have yet to see a female member smoke in this space).
It is an indulgence that has survived the ages, destructive though it may be. But perhaps it's about more than just a pause that refreshes. Maybe it's a window on the true nature of the political animal: primordial in its tastes, protective of its turf, and open to reforming itself only when absolutely necessary. After all, this is the home of the sovereign Congress, a co-equal branch of government. The fact that executive branch buildings are smoke-free means little here. Or better yet, it provides a means to make a subtle point: Members allow themselves the pleasure of an indoor smoke as a assertion of their independence. They allow smoking to survive in the Speakers' Lobby for the simple reason that they can.
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To Mrs. Rious, with love
ALL THE SMOKING LAWS ARE DESIGNED FOR THE RICH. LOOK AT THE BARS IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK. IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO PUT OUTSIDE SPACE ON YOUR ESTABLISHMENT YOU SURVIVE. IF NOT, YOU GO UNDER. TAKE AWAY TAXES FROM THE SMOKERS, AND SEE HOW FAST THE NON-SMOKERS COMPLAIN WHEN THERE TAXES GET INCREASED.
DAVE LANGE ERIE, PA. (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:42:30 PM)
Seems to me that like anyone else on Planet Earth, our lawmakers should be entitled to poison themselves so long as they don't put anyone else at risk. But I strongly agree that they should also be required to indemnify their medical insurers (the taxpayers) against any expense in any way connected with their self-destructive addiction.
Ian Harmer, Gardnerville, Nevada (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:35:29 PM)
Hurts your eyes, your lungs, your immune system. Personally, as an ex-smoker, I'm glad to see so many places banning it completely. why should I allow others to endanger my health while I'm trying to eat a nice dinner out? I've lost too many people I care about to Lung cancer, emphysema, etc. Keep banning it!
(Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:33:38 PM)
And these are the same people who argued for Intelligent Design. If this is not evidence of Darwin at work then I don't know what is.
T. David Chicago (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:30:56 PM)
I am a smoker (but as Phil Harris used to sing "I cursed the day I told them I would join" Just having a brother who passed away due to this habit, I am now going to take the first step to quit, LONG LIVE THE KINGS IN WASHINGTON WHO DON'T KNOW THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEM THERE.
Alfred Vidal, Jr Chula Vista, CA (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:30:19 PM)
Another example of them having privileges that others do not - like those nice pensions and good health insurance. Someone needs to start policing these "guys".
(Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:27:30 PM)
My lord, if people dont like smoke than leave, I personaly dont care to smoke, but I understand the freedom that smokers should enjoy. To be able to light up in a bar and enjoy a beer just seems to go hand in hand with the lifestyle. Who are people to dictate that people cant smoke in such a place, just because the smoke hurts their eyes. Cry me a river and get over it...
Keep Freedom Alive, Austin Tx (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:21:42 PM)
AS MY FATHER WAS SO FOND OF SAYING 'PRIVILEGES OF MGT' I JUST WISH I WAS MGR (YES I AM A SMOKER)
ROBERT T PAGE, ROCKFORD, MN (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:21:21 PM)
I'm not surprised. The same thing happens in the capital building in Harrisburg, PA. Once I was there a few years ago doing an new computer rollout for the Democratic side of the house. I was amazed at the fact that you could smoke in the offices of the representatives. Laws are for us unwashed masses, not for the elite who make the laws
Nickv, manheim, PA (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:20:07 PM)
one thing you left out .... the American taxpayers are paying the medical bills for these self-centered jackasses!
Murphy, Asheville, NC (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:10:17 PM)
So much for a drug free workplace...yes, nicotine is a drug - Nicotine Dependence is a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental and Emotional Disorders, Fourth Edition, TR (DSM IV-TR)...
Tom Miller, Charleston, WV (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:10:04 PM)
“Were it possible for a being who resides on our globe to visit the inhabitants of a planet where reason governed and to tell them that a vile weed was in general use amongst the inhabitants of the globe it left, which afforded no nourishment; that its use was extremely nauseous; that it was unfriendly to health and morals; that its use was attended with considerable loss of time and property, that account would be incredible, and the author would probably be excluded from society for relating a story of so improbable a nature…In no view is it possible to contemplate the creature man in a more absurd and ridiculous light than in his attachment to tobacco.”
Benjamin Rush, Father of American Psychiatry and Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Patrick O'Connell Olean, NY (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:07:31 PM)
So what's the big surprise??? That politicians don't seem inclined to follow their own legislation? Why should they, as demonstrated by the Bush Administration, legislation/laws/constitution isn't worth the paper written on...not for truely important people such as themselves anyway...
Brush Chopper, Crawford Texas (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:03:01 PM)
am I suppose to be surprised?
clara mccormick, St. Petersburg,FL (Sent Jun 27, 2006 2:00:03 PM)
Sounds like a good place to burn a flag while conducting a gay marriage.
(Sent Jun 27, 2006 12:44:32 PM)
great exposee' Mike...thanks much for sharing "an insider's view" with us lay folks.
(Sent Jun 27, 2006 12:39:52 PM)
A telling, but minor example of Congress' passing of rules and legislation that impacts society and then exempts the members of Congress from the effects of their efforts.
Jerry Rothstein NY, NY (Sent Jun 27, 2006 12:27:26 PM)
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