Gasp! No clean towels in the House/Senate gyms

| October 9, 2013

I guess that members of the House of Representatives and the Senate aren’t dealing with the government shutdown very well. The Hill reports that they actually have to reuse towels in the gym because laundry service has ended there;

Members don’t only have to pick up their towels — they have to reuse them for their showers, because there is no more laundering service.

Lawmakers, including some who live in their offices during visits to Washington and use the gym’s showers to clean up, say they need the gym to stay open.

“This job is very stressful and if you don’t have a place to vent, you are going to go crazy and that’s why I’ve used it all these years,” said Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who has used the facility since 1973.

I’m aghast that we treat our perfumed princes so shoddily. I mean, sure, military families who’ve lost loved ones have lost their death benefits, the base commissaries are closed, veterans are run off from their memorials or have to penetrate barriers to get to them, but this is just beyond the pale. All of that other stuff didn’t shame us about the workings of our government, but, finally, this should move us into supporting an end to the shutdown.

Category: Politics

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Ex-PH2

Is THAT what that smell is when the wind blows from the east?

OWB

It’s worse than you thought it was, Jonn! Apparently, they only have hand towels now.

MCPO NYC USN (Ret.)

You know what I would do with those towels?

Nevermind!

I think you do!

NHSparky

My God, what’s next? Will they be expected to wipe THEIR OWN asses?

THIS WILL NOT STAND!!! HARRUMPH!! HARRUMPH!! HARRUMPH!!

Living in Israel

The more stuff they complain about, the clearer it becomes as to how they spend American tax money…

… and the more we wonder why we let them spend it that way.

Ex-PH2

And this is not a post from the Duffel Blog?

Well, something finally came home to roost. (Falls off chair laughing, startles cat out of perfectly good nap.)

MAJMike

Oh, the horror! The horror!!

How many of us went for days, weeks without a shower?

Apparently we have Perfumed Princes in the Congress. What a bunch of pansies.

Mustang2LT

@4. Hey, I didn’t get a HARRUMPH out of that guy!

Ex-PH2

I vote we all send them one paper towel, from each one of us… as a token of our (lack of) esteem.

Just Plain Jason

Harrumph! Harrumph!

Lazarus Long

To Quote my SGM:
“Oh Motherf***er, Please!”

NHSparky

@8–you didn’t give Obumbles a, “Harumph!”

“Harumph!”

“You watch your ass…”

Actually, Obama reminds me of another Mel Brooks character, that of King Louis from “History of the World, Part I”…

“But these are my people! I am their soverign! PULL! Damn, just a little more to the left.”

Gina

I am so aghast and despairing of the devastating impact on our selfless and dedicated Congress I can hardly type. Weeping may follow…

NHSparky

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who has used the facility since 1973.

Yup–that’s the “bridge to nowhere” guy. Also investigated for fraud, bribery, etc.

80 years old, 42 years in Congress, and that doesn’t include his time in AK state politics. Naw, no problem there!

TheOtherMatt

Oh those poor, poor dears. Whatever shall we do for them?

OWB

Just one opinion here, but haven’t we already paid them enough to afford buying and laundering their own &$#@ towels??

A Proud Infidel

OH, NOOOOOO! That just breaks my heart! Those poooor Congresscritters!!!

/sarc

Twist

Don Young is my Rep. and I will be writing to him to quit his whining and use some of that Alaska Permenent Fund Dividend check we all got last week to get a membership at the YMCA.

Ex-PH2

Isn’t there a laundromat they could use somewhere in WDC?

Green Thumb

Maybe APL can provide this service.

I mean, with their CEO being a Tribal Member, LEO and former SEAL, not only do they cover all the bases, but obviously have the necessary experience.

And I have the sneaking suspicion that due to certain outstanding issues, they will pick up the contract on the cheap.

NHSparky

Ya know, I’ll admit it’s been a while since I had a gym membership, but I do have an elliptical machine at home, and I don’t recall anyone policing my basement or washing said stanky towels for me.

Hmmmm…sauce, goose, gander, shit like that?

And Bodaprez still hanging out at 37 percent. To put that in perspective, GWB’s lowest rating in 2008 in the middle of the financial meltdown/Iraq/etc., was 25 percent. Nixon was 24. Clinton was 37.

You get the picture.

Devtun

Good for them, welcome to the existence of “commoners”…towels get re-used many many times between laundry days – serial.

Luckily there is still hot water & TP (for now)…many critters save money in uber expensive D.C. by sleeping in their offices & depend on the gym to sh!t, shower, & shave.

Flagwaver

Let me get this straight… the laundry room hasn’t been locked it is just no longer staffed, right? Maybe they should get off their padded asses and do their own damn laundry like the rest of the country.

I know it is difficult for the aristocracy to understand that, but I guess the King is showing them that they are no better than the rest of the serfs…

Well, you know what I say about that? You probably do, for them and the horse they rode in on.

USMCE8Ret

Fuck those guys.

Mustang2LT

@12. It’s good to be the King.

That is until the peasants storm the Bastille and later on escort you to the guillotine!

MCPO NYC USN (Ret.)

Don’t tell anyone but I heard all the Republicans spunked in the towels and the Dems who are all into this towel reuse green thingy are using the dirty towels with “extra flavor added.”

2/17 Air Cav

Don “The Buff” Young has been in office for 40 years. There is something inherently wrong with that, whatever his party. But he’s not even close to numero uno. That’s John “The Drool” Dingell. Eisenhower was president when Dingell entered Congress. Can you believe that? John “What an A-Hole” Conyers has been there since 1965 and Charlie “Taxes” Rangle and Bill “Someone Else, Not Me” Young have The Buff beaten by two years. Sick.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

what USMCE8Ret said, double for me….

USMCE8Ret

@27 – We need term limits for all of them.

Ex-PH2

Flagwaver, that should be ‘the dog they rode in on’.

I think I’ll do some laundry this afternoon, just for the hell of it. Lots of towels and washcloths. And I will smile with every towel and washcloth I fold and put away, all fluffy and clean. 😉

Flagwaver

Ex, I love your sense of humor and iron-y.

Personally, I cannot stand the thought of a career politician trying to tell me that know what I’m going through or that they are just like me.

They should be part time, paid either minimum wage or the same pay as a service member, and have a limit of two terms. Then, we will see people who no longer bicker.

Better yet, after their two terms, give them the Spartan King treatment. They are put on trial to be answerable for everything they did during their time in service.

PFM

Careful, they might get so stressed out they’ll call a one month recess to recover – paid, of course.

A Proud Infidel

@32, that, or they’ll vote to give themselves a three-day work week to alleviate the stress of being in orifice like when Nanny Lugosi had a resolution passed giving House Critters a four day work week when she was Speaker!

2/17 Air Cav

Yeah, I’d love a Constitutional amendment imposing term limits. It would be one term for a senator and two for a rep. And while I’m at it, 15 years for a Supreme Court justice. That life job shit by appointment is ridiculous. And while I’m dreaming, I would like a literacy test (offered in English only), a civics test, and a loyalty oath administered as voter qualifications. Oh, and if you are healthy, over 30 and never held a fulltime job for longer than 6 months, disqualified!

Ex-PH2

@33 – Proud, that was so that she could take 3-day weekends at your expense and mine.

Someone proposed elsewhere a term limit of 12 years in Congress, regardless of which house, be it one or the other or both. That’s 2 max Senatorial terms and 6 max as Representatives, or a combination of the two.

I think 12 of that are enough for anyone, especially when they become so embedded in it that they can’t give it up. When they are there that long, they are not in it to serve you or their constituents.

A Proud Infidel

Yeah, that was me, I proposed that noone should be allowed to serve more than twelve years in Congress, PERIOD!

Ex-PH2

OK, then I agree with you, and I think it’s WAY overdue.

Devtun

From a couple yrs ago…Jake Tapper reported about the Congressional gym. Very secure, secretive, and only Congress people allowed – absolutely no commoners permitted. Another thing…apparently Jake couldn’t get an answer on the operating expenses of this opulent gym (basketball court, pool, sauna, and lots of other amenities)

A Proud Infidel

@35, Ex-PH2, this is it as best as I can remember:

PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT:

LEGISLATIVE TERM LIMITS

Upon the enactment of this Amendment, anyone elected to Congress will be limited to twelve years in office. Representatives will be limited to six two year terms, Senators will be limited to two six year terms. If one should progress from one Chamber to another, their combined time in office between both Chambers cannot exceed twelve years.

JohnC

It’s actually pretty ‘meh,’ on par with a nice YMCA. Not much in the way of gym candy. And they get pissy and give your weird looks when bring in a pair of 30 lb. chains. A bit staph-y, too; might not want to go there now.

JAL67

Somebody get me a towel…I am weeping for our poor Congressidiots…