In what has to be the funniest thing we’ve read today, The New York Times has a profile in their Home & Garden section today of four roommates living in a row house here in Washington, dealing with typical group house issues, like whose turn it is to clean and how to deal with a rodent problem. Of course, the in-house drama reaches epic heights of satiric comedy when it’s revealed who the tenants are: Rep. Bill Delahunt (D- MA), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL).
Think MTV’s “Real World” with a slovenly cast of Democratic power brokers. While Washington may have more than its share of crash pads for policy-debating workaholics, few, if any, have sheltered a quorum as powerful as this one. About a quarter-mile southeast of the Capitol, the inelegantly decorated two-bedroom house has become an unlikely center of influence in Washington’s changing power grid. It is home to the second- and third-ranking senators in the new Democratic majority (Mr. Durbin, the majority whip, and Mr. Schumer, the vice chairman of the Democratic caucus) and the chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee (Mr. Miller).
Mr. Delahunt, a six-term congressman, is the least prominent of the four but perhaps the funniest. More to the point, he is the only one willing to sleep in the living room with a close-up view of Mr. Schumer slumbering a few feet away in his boxers.
Mr. Miller began taking in weary lawmakers in 1982, but this is the first time in 12 years that four members of a Democratic majority have lived here simultaneously. The four men were once host to a fund-raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer of California at their divey dwelling, raising $80,000. Given the prevailing attire in the place on many nights, guests were given pairs of custom-made “Barbara Boxer shorts.”
As a general rule, the abode is hardly fit for entertaining, or even for a health inspector. It is used for convenience: sleeping, ditching stuff, and fast-food consumption — the kinds of functions prized by vagabond politicians whose families are back in their home states and who generally spend only their working weekdays here.
You really just have to read the whole story, in which other juicy tidbits, like that fact that Chuck Schumer always finishes the cereal without buying more, or that their “refrigerator is mostly empty save for apples, grapes and about two dozen bottles of beer.” And you thought your roommates were bad about grocery shopping.
Photo by budwies99
