Wonkette

Smoking is slowly, surely being banned in DC - it’s legal in bars, illegal in restaurants, and will be verboten in both when 2007 rolls in. The only place it might remain legal is, surprise, Capitol Hill.

Some members are confused that a new citywide ban on smoking inside the workplace does not apply to some halls or rooms inside the more than 200-year-old Capitol, one of the few places where the term “members only” is still relevant and where smoke-filled backrooms are no myth.
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Certain rooms controlled by leaders or committees are exempt from the policy and are allowed to set their own rules, which is one reason why cigar smoke often wafts from under the door of the third-floor office of Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, California Republican.

Note to GOP: It’s been a while since you flexed those federalism muscles and overturned DC’s assault weapons ban. Anything else you can think of overturning? Anything at all? MORE »

ONCE AGAIN: We need to get us a PAC. MORE »

Our call for pictures of John Boehner smoking has garnered exactly one response, seen directly to the left. MORE »

We know, we know. New Republican Majority Leader John Boehner is “perpetually tan.” A Hill staffer told us a story about the Boehn on one of those (perfectly ethical!) paid junkets to some far-off socialist European land, in which the charming natives repeatedly asked him if he’d been spending time on the beach. The Boehn explained that Ohio isn’t really known for its lovely shoreline, and explained no more. But enough with his leathery exterior and piercing blue eyes — we’re most intrigued by his less photogenic proclivities. Specifically, his oft-referenced but seldom-seen smoking habit. Said staffer said (there’s a fun phrase) Boehner can scarcely wait to leave House chambers before he sucks down a pack — so why aren’t there any damn pictures? We may just be longing for the days of ashtrays on the Tonight Show, but it seems a bit odd that journos describe the man’s “ever-present” cig and don’t provide the visual evidence. MORE »

A few Wall Street Journal reporters unfortunately missed yesterday’s pronunciation correction: MORE »