Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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2001: A Space Odyssey

Friday, July 6, 2001

In the Capitol of the United States, power is measured by space. Junior Members of the House and Senate have the worst office space. Senior Members not only have the most desirable offices in the House and Senate Office Buildings, but also get what are called "hide-a-way" office space which are rooms tucked here and there in the Capitol for which they, often, have the only key.

On the third floor of the Capitol - the floor which has the doors leading to the visitor seating areas - also contain space for the media.

On each side of the Capitol there are four Galleries for the media: Press, Radio-TV, Periodical, and Photographers.

The Press Gallery is reserved for reporters for daily newspapers and the wire services. In the House it is a series of shelves which face the walls lining the Gallery, except for the wire service area which has some desks. On the Senate side, there is, additionally, a large room with rows of desks which looks like every city room in every newspaper in every Ben Hecht play ever written.

The Radio-TV Galleries have, in addition to shelf space, very tiny booths from which reporters can record their reports (radio) or add audio to the video shot elsewhere (TV). In addition, each Radio-TV Gallery has a room in which press conferences are held. It is more than a little telling that in the House press conference room the books on the shelves behind the speakers are the normal width, but have been cut down so they are only about four inches deep.

The Periodical Galleries is for publications which publish less than daily. Newsweek and Time would be two obvious examples, but a number of newsletter writers work out of that Gallery as well.

Finally there are the Photographers' Galleries. These are still photographers, as opposed to video, and they are known, colloquially, as "shooters."

None of this space is anything which would be featured on the House and Garden Channel but it is provided free of charge as part of our complex system of maintaining a free and open society.

When the Democrats took over control of the Senate, new Majority Leader Tom Daschle decided the new, huge Democratic majority - 1 - needed more space. The space he decided they needed is currently occupied by the Senate Photographers and Periodicals.

An edict went out a week ago - on the day the Senate was voting on the Patients' Bill of Rights - that the Shooters and the Writers had to move out over the weekend and bunk in with the Radio-TV and Press Galleries so the Democrats could turn that space into offices for their burgeoning staffs.

The Shooters and the Periodical Writers said, simply, "No." And have squatted in their space.

For a look at the rules which govern the Periodical Gallery -- and some pretty good pictures -- go to the Secret Decoder Ring.

Each Gallery has a board of directors which liaises with the leadership on issues of coverage (where can they go, and what permissions to they need to go there), amenities (space, parking, and similar items), and general getting along with the Senators and Representatives.

They have be liaising furiously for the past week. Daschle has relented until the August recess at which time he has said they most move in to the other Galleries.

Then comes the issue of whether the other Galleries will let them in. The prospect of a bunch of photographers and periodical writers wandering endlessly the Halls of Congress, like so many Marley's Ghosts, is not appealing on several levels.

Do we root for the media? Or do we root for the Democrats? Did you root for Iran? Or Iraq?

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