The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarter's Expenses?
Posted on 08/19/2014 11:25:41 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
Hidden at the end of a hallway on the first floor of the Capitol, just past the “senators only” sign, is a white-tablecloth eatery with high, arched windows, a thick red carpet flecked with beige flowers, and an ornate chandelier.
Here in the Senate Dining Room, only senators, high-level staff members and other approved guests are eligible to sit in the polished wood and blue leather chairs and talk business over the restaurant’s signature bean soup, while uniformed servers bustle about refreshing iced teas.
A generation ago, Senators Mike Mansfield, Democrat of Montana and the majority leader, and George Aiken, Republican of Vermont, came here nearly every morning to have breakfast together, a scene almost unimaginable in today’s polarized climate. Now, it has become a place that more resembles Robert D. Putnam’s “Bowling Alone” than Robert A. Caro’s “Master of the Senate.”
Comity has been eroding for years in Washington, a gridlocked swamp of a city where the 113th Congress is on track to become one of the least productive in history. But to see the fractured chamber in a more personal way, one has only to tuck into a club sandwich in the dining room — a genteel throwback with its own history, habits and hierarchies.
“The lack of sitting down over lunch to get to know your colleagues is indicative of the hyper-partisanship that surrounds the Senate these days,” said Jim Manley, a former longtime Senate Democratic aide. “The downfall of collegiality in the Senate is symbolized by the lack of members going to the Senate Dining Room.”
Now, along with its more exclusive, senators-only counterpart across the hall, the dining room can feel more like a tourist attraction for special guests than a place to get acquainted or cut a deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/4692/print
There are actually two Senate dining rooms. The larger one, built as part of a renovation in 1960, is open to senators and their top staff and guests. Gone are the days of rich Southern fare — fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy — but the food is tasty enough, with offerings like bacon and eggs at breakfast and a crab-cake sandwich or grilled salmon salad at lunch.
The service is efficient, especially for senators, who are all known by name and greeted with a smile or deferential nod before being shown to their table. (The menu also includes a helpful explanation of the various “legislative buzzers and signal lights” throughout the Capitol that alert senators when it is time for a vote.)
The other dining room, which Mr. Dodd frequented, is right across the hall, and truly senators-only: Not even staff members are allowed.
Maybe Michelle Obama told the Senator give rid of that dining room it served unhealthy fried chicken
Why bother?
The boy king has a pen and a phone and has insulted the Supreme Court when things don't go his way.
Do ya think just kinda maybe Harry Reid has a little something to do with that?
My sister used to work for the govt in DC and she took me for lunch once to the larger senatge dining room. The food was great and we saw a lot of familiar faces. I really enjoyed it.
Good news. Now let’s close the damn dining halls and save the taxpayers some money. I know....I know....It is not much but you have got to start someplace.
Treat three term congressmen like kings, and it is bound to fog the most virtuous mind.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarter's Expenses?
“Getting along” has always been Dumbocrap code for a Republican cave-in.
They don’t have Burger King in D.C.? That’s what the majority of American families consider “eating out” in this lousy economy that is largely the fault of Big Government that takes money from struggling Middle Class families so they can buy votes to stay in their cushy jobs. And we are sick of hearing about their ill-gotten perks.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” -Animal Farm
Hey, that’s my tagline!
That this private, tax-payer funded, restaurant exists at all is an affront to our citizen Republic and a symptom of the bigger issues we need to deal with in regards to the small group of people who think they own this place.
And a good one it is...I’ll send you a royalty.
Who would want to eat there having to look at the likes of Harry Reid, Upchuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, and all of the fugly NAG-HAG-RAT wymyn senators?
The congress critters think they are special and are above the rest of us because they treat themselves as special and act like they are above the rest of us. Those folks that are sent to DC are not royalty nor are they special. Hell, anymore they aren’t even statesmen. They are lying leeches and criminals and they are complicit with the WH in sucking the life and liberty out of this country.
i wouldn’t want to get to know harry reid’better. or any of’them.
i want to defeat them. not ‘be friends with them. i’d be sent there to deal’with them’and defeat them and their ideas, not to getto kow them’better’and wall between the pews and give them the ‘sign of peace’.
personality matter zero, what they believe needs to be defeated. if i wanted friends i’d go to gymboree.
I can understand that. I do not associate with people that are working to kill my country (dims, libs, muzzies, queers etc...) they turn my stomach so I couldn’t eat anyway.
How far from the Senate Dining Room to the nearest lamppost?
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