How A Woman's Bathroom Helped John Boehner Pull Off A Capitol Land Grab

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/john-boehner-womens-bathroom-office-grab_n_816488.html

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives split its first committee, Ways and Means, into two in 1865, creating the Committee on Banking and Currency and the Committee on Appropriations. Consistent with its new station, the committee was soon thereafter afforded the best piece of real estate on the House side of the Capitol -- three sprawling offices just off the House floor, with exclusive access to one of the building's biggest balconies and its breathtaking view of the Mall and the Washington Monument, which was completed just five years before the first Appropriations Committee chairman moved into the new office.

The panel had a good run, occupying the space for more than 100 years until John Boehner, a man who has never asked it for an earmark, became Speaker of the House. The word "spending" has become an epithet in Washington, and the panel's power is at its lowest point in its history. Boehner (R-Ohio) is seizing the opportunity and sharing the spoils with his counterparts in Democratic leadership.

There has long been a saying in Washington that there are Republicans, Democrats and appropriators. The appropriators are losing.

Leaders of both parties have long salivated over the choice office space held by the committee, square footage that is priceless in a building with little to spare. In Washington, proximity to power is measured sometimes in very concrete (and marble) ways: Holding the keys to that balcony and its attendant office space means power. Lobbyists who can score an invite to the balcony can demonstrate to clients just how important they are, how much access they have, because prime space in the Capitol is something -- unlike a 200-foot boat, an oak-paneled private jet or even a small island -- that money can't buy.

More at the link --