The Times had a delicious piece yesterday on a phenomenon that has always piqued my interest: congressional housemates. In spite of six-figure salaries, it can be difficult for congressmen to maintain two residences (one in their district, the other in D.C.). Many representatives rent townhouses or apartments together and I've always imagined they live the raucous lives of frat boys. Well, not exactly. The Times profiles the not-quite-Animal House existence of Representatives George Miller and Bill Delahunt and Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer. What do we learn? Schumer is a cereal fiend (namely granola) and leaves a messy bed. Durbin likes big screen TVs. Miller does his colleagues a favor with the $750 a month rent (on Capitol Hill!). And Delahunt is the resident joker:

Once, Mr. Miller's son shot a deer and presented the house with an abundant supply of venison. It remained in the freezer for 12 years, at which point it was deemed to have reached its term limit and was discarded.

"Whatever happened to that venison?" Mr. Schumer wondered.

"I think it just got up and walked away," Mr. Delahunt said.

We also discover that "Women rarely set foot in the place, excluding the Haitian cleaning lady who comes every week and who everyone promises is a legal immigrant." How much you wanna bet the RNC already has a team working on this? Would Tom Tancredo refuse to socialize at a townhouse if the help didn't have proper papers? Well, nix that question. The Times reveals that "no Republican had ever set foot in the place, at least to their [the Democratic tenants'] knowledge." Nice to know that partisan bickering extends even to the domicile. Update: An astute reader with a good memory informs me that TNR's Kate Marsh wrote about this same set of congressional roommates in 2002. --James Kirchick