NYT: "Think MTV’s “Real World” with a slovenly cast of Democratic power brokers."

[Pirate Smile]

At Home With George Miller, Richard J. Durbin, Charles E. Schumer and Bill Delahunt
Taking Power, Sharing Cereal


HAPPY TOGETHER From left, Representative George Miller, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representative Bill Delahunt.

SOME of the most powerful Democrats in America are split over a most incendiary household issue: rodents. “I once had to pick up a mouse by the tail that Durbin refused to pick up,” complained Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, referring to his roommate Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

This characterization is not fair to Mr. Durbin, interjected another tenant in the Capitol Hill row house, Representative Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts. For starters, it overlooks Mr. Durbin’s gift for killing rats. “He will kill them with his bare hands,” Mr. Delahunt marveled.


Doug Mills/The New York Times
The only thing they fight about is Mr. Schumer’s messy bed.


Doug Mills/The New York Times
THE TRAPPINGS OF POWER Mr. Miller, in T-shirt, shares his house with three of his fellow Democratic members of Congress.

-snip-
“Everybody in the world says they’re going to do a television series based on us,” said Mr. Durbin, who was collapsed on the couch on a recent Monday night. Still in a tie, he sipped ice water from a massive Chicago Cubs cup while waiting for the Chinese food to arrive.

“But then they realize that the story of four middle-aged men, with no sex and violence, is not going to last two weeks,” he said. The prevailing topics of their discussions are grandchildren and Metamucil, he added.
“Hey, speak for yourself, Durbin,” Mr. Delahunt said, protesting the claim of no sex and violence.


Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Miller's house.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/garden/18roomies.html?_r=2&ref=politics&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[Ninja Jordan]

1. bwahahahaha

[Pirate Smile]

2. kick

[PassingFair]

3. I LOVE Dick Durbin...

He can come and live with me if they ever
kick him outta the house.

Schumer, not so much.

[calimary]

4. I love this! Sure is a nice contrast from the out-of-your-home-district

palace rick santorum and other republi-CONS insisted on.

These guys are in the business of working for us, representing us, and doing it as economically as possible. I think this is a wise and reasonable expenditure of our money. I find even their disheveled rooms appealing.

[Pirate Smile]

5. Me too. I liked the entire article.

[calimary]

6. I happen to like that "slovenly cast of Democratic power brokers."

I like the rumpled look there. It looks as though they're too busy working for a living to worry about fastidious housekeeping and other assorted appearances. I'll take that ANY day, over the alternative (that we just got rid of, last November). Besides, the four of them remind me of the house I lived in during college, and my four (male) roommates. Utter HEAVEN being surrounded by all those guys, and yes, they looked pretty rumpled all the time.

[BlueIris]

7. That is painfully cute.

I don't love Chuck Shumer, but this article amused the hell out of me. "(M)essy bed." Hee.

[Tatiana]

8. What a cool and "homey" house!

Though Schumer gets on my nerves, he was quite cute here:

“There is a lot of violence in here,” Mr. Schumer said.

In fact, the roommates have never resorted to violence, at least with one another. (Crickets are another story.) Their weapons are verbal, and often aimed at Mr. Schumer, who admits to a serious dereliction of roommate duties, like grocery shopping. He is also prone to a blatant disregard for conserving a most precious household resource, cereal.

“I love cereal,” Mr. Schumer said, digging into his second bowl of granola, going a long way toward depleting a box that Mr. Miller had just purchased.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. What a fascinating (and hilarious) story!

Wouldn't ya just love to hang with them for 24 hrs?:rofl:

[VenusRising]

10. Make your bed.

Don't hog all the cereal.
We don't need a new teevee. We like the old one.

:rofl:

If there is anything in the world that shows the humanity of people it's looking into their living rooms. I love it!!

[progressoid]

12. “Who says Republicans are good for property values?”

Ha ha ha

“This street was just devastated by the election,” Mr. Miller said. “Who says Republicans are good for property values?”

[IndyOp]

11. This is good, while Hastert living with his male aids was bizarre?

I dislike double-standards whenever I encounter them.

:(

[quiet.american]

13. Colleagues being roommates doesn't sound as strange as living with your sub-ordinate to me.

Granted, you could have a point about double standards, but Hastert doesn't live with a couple of guys during the week, he lives with his chief-of-staff, which even the jaded Lawrence O'Donnell, who admits there's nothing unusual in career Washingtonians rooming together, seems to find a bit odd.