The Sad Life of the Lame Duck Losers

Eighty-two Democrat House members have to move out of their offices to make room for the new guys, so now most of them will be spending their remaining days in Congress working in cubicle spaces in the Capitol basement:

Election losers, welcome to Office Space.

Some of the most senior and respected members of Congress are among the dozens of outgoing lawmakers whose offices have been crammed into tiny basement cubicles as their old offices are emptied and refurbished.

“We have 82 members who do not have an office,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “We have 82 members who are operating out of a little cubicle. ... That’s a terrible situation to have members in, and I don’t like it.”

And while nobody seems to be throwing fits about missing red Swingline staplers, the basement bullpen is quite a comedown for some of the most powerful members of Congress, who virtually overnight went from comfortable congressional veterans to homeless on the Hill.

Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the transportation committee chairman who championed legislation to fix America’s crowded highways, faces an overcrowding issue of his own, a drastic change from the royal blue carpet, piles of crisp legislative papers and transportation memorabilia that once filled his cheery Rayburn office.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), an outspoken liberal firebrand who raised at least $5.1 million this election cycle, will be squatting in other members’ offices or an open committee room until the lame-duck session ends, his press secretary said.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), who was chairman of the critical Social Security subcommittee of Ways and Means, now holds meetings in the Longworth Cafeteria.

“Yesterday was the first time in 18 years I didn’t have a home on the Hill,” he told POLITICO. “It was an odd feeling.”

Even without their offices, staffs or favorite chairs, members are still expected to show up for votes and hearings, and to conduct other legislative activities during the lame-duck session that has stretched past this week’s deadline for outgoing lawmakers to vacate their offices.

Memo to Steny Hoyer: If you don't like having your members in cubicles in the basement, try winning the election next time.