House Democrats End Smoking in the “Lobby”
Posted by Uncle Moneybag$ on 10 Jan 2007 at 02:33 pm | Tagged as: News
Wednesday, January 9, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Declaring an end to “smoke-filled rooms” in the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday said smoking would be banned from an ornate meeting area just off the floor of the House of Representatives.
The Speaker’s Lobby was one of the few remaining places in the Capitol where smoking was permitted. The move will force lawmakers, including chain-smoking House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, to find other places to sneak a cigarette.
Often during House votes, the Speaker’s Lobby would be thick with cigar and cigarette smoke, as lawmakers swapped stories with each other and held impromptu interviews with reporters.The “smoked-filled room” has long held a place in Washington political lore referring to earlier times when men smoking heavily would meet in private rooms to work out the government’s business.
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