Pain in the Ash

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, today declared — "effective immediately" — that smoking is no longer permitted in the Speaker’s Lobby  of the House of Representatives, where for years Members of Congress have congregated to fill the proverbial "smoke-filled room."

"As Members of Congress, we must be held to a higher standard," Pelosi said. "We can no longer risk the health of colleagues, staff, pages, reporters and others who pass through the Speaker’s Lobby each day."

Though many ancticipated this would come as dreaded news to House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-OH — who is a veritable chimney of carcinogens (he favors Barclays) — Boehner this morning, when asked about the ban, said "that’s fine."

It was not known how the news was received over at the Senate side of the Capitol, where Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s sleek suits and media-bestowed halo occasionally reek of nicotine.

Here in D.C., most government offices became smoke-free in 1997 by executive order; the District of Columbia issued a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in town effective January 2. Most public places in the US Capitol are smoke-free, but the Speaker’s Lobby has been exempt from such a ban. Until now.

Pelosi today declared that "the days of smoke-filled rooms in the United States Capitol are over," but that’s not quite the case. Members of the House and Senate can still smoke in their offices, welcome news no doubt to the estimated 25% of the Congress who are nicotine-addled.

Incidentally, under GOP rule, Members of the House often smoked right on the House floor despite such actions being forbidden.

Speaker Pelosi’s office says that rule will now be enforced and if necessary Congressmen and -women will be told to snuff their butts.

– jt