Secret offices a Senate tradition

updated 3:10 p.m. ET June 4, 2007

WASHINGTON - When Sen. Patrick Leahy wants privacy, he heads down one of the Capitol's marbled hallways and through a locked door next to a hulking, white marble statue. Then, through another locked door, into a hideaway secure from the bustle outside.

Many of the 100 senators have these coveted, hard-to-find nooks scattered around the Capitol, a cherished perk on top of their official suites in the nearby Senate buildings where the staff works and constituents drop in.

Hideaways have been popular places for legislative dealmaking - even a little monkey business, too.

One senator drew on his roots as a pilot and designed his hideaway space as a cockpit, where he donned a telephone headset to communicate with ground control - his staff across the street.

Incumbents
Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, recently met in his hideaway with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to discuss the firings of U.S. attorneys and FBI abuses of the Patriot Act.

Painted in soft yellow with white trim, the narrow, high-ceilinged room on the first floor has one of the Capitol's most desired views - of the National Mall and Washington Monument. There's a desk and computer, a couch, a working fireplace flanked by built-in bookcases and a bathroom - considered a perk for a hideaway.

Photos of "the most beautiful grandchildren you've ever seen" - Leahy has four - and of the Democrat's 300-acre property in Vermont adorn the walls, along with two folded U.S. flags mounted in their cases.

Down a red hallway just off the Rotunda on the second floor is the hideaway that belongs to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It serves as an overflow room, and is used for staff and constituent meetings that are too large for the stately suite McConnell inherited when he became Republican leader.

"It's not very pretty but it's useful," spokesman Don Stewart said.

The windowless room has a conference table and six chairs, a couch, two armchairs and a non-working fireplace with a large mirror above it. There's a TV, telephones, a mini fridge and a bathroom. Photos of a young McConnell decorate the walls.

Sam Brownback's hideaway is in the basement. The Kansas Republican and presidential aspirant met there with activists in 2005 as Congress debated the case of Terry Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed. Other senators dwelling in the basement are Republicans Jon Kyl of Arizona and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Inhofe has a fish-shaped "Jesus" magnet on the door.

Some House leaders and committee chairmen have hideaways, too.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., a member of the Democratic leadership, has a beige-colored, first-floor hideaway with a wood-burning fireplace, a Mall view and photos of his wife and three children.

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