Editor's note: Mike took you inside the smoke-filled Speakers' lobby in a post on June 27, 2006, which as he updates below, is history after less than a week of the 110th Congress.

New Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that smoking will no longer be permitted in the Speakers' Lobby, the anteroom of the House chamber that had previously served as a smoking sanctuary for members of Congress. The move comes 10 days after a smoking ban went into effect in Washington, D.C., bars and restaurants, and years after smoking was banned in executive branch buildings all over town.

Members will still be permitted to light up in their private offices, however.

Editor's note: Our sister blog about politics, First Read, is eating turkey until Nov. 27, so Mike offers this to The Daily Nightly, which I gladly accept.

Nancy Pelosi has decided to pick up and move her suite of offices across National Statuary Hall to the space now occupied by GOP Speaker Hastert.

Democratic speakers and leaders have been in the suite where Pelosi is now situated for years. Pelosi herself has often marveled at how she finds herself in the same office used by one of her personal heroes, Tip O'Neill.

But construction on the Capitol Visitors Center has shrunk the space considerably, and though Pelosi was known to harbor desires to stay where she was, her staff was insistent. Plus, the Hastert space on the west side of the Capitol has a balcony that affords a dramatic view down the National Mall.

So it turns out that she really will need to measure the drapes. One thing that will definitely have to change is the motif. Speaker Hastert's office is done in all red.

Two lessons that  authorities have included among the first to impart to the 54 new members of the U.S. House of Representatives: how to cover your (rear end), and to how to duck and cover.

Newly elected members, some wide-eyed in awe of the their surroundings, are here on Capitol Hill today for freshman orientation. The morning portion of the program was devoted to advice on how to run an office and an organization within the ethical boundaries of the House.

On the way into the closed-door confab, congresspersons-elect were handed a pamphlet from the Hill's Office of Emergency planning that featured instructions on how to cover your head with a bio-hazard mask in the event of attack, replete with photographs of smiling models with the plastic sheaths over their faces.

"It's fine, especially if I were having a bad hair day," said member-elect Nancy Boyda, D-Kan.

Editor's note: Portions of Mike's analysis were excerpted in First Read, the NBC blog that covers politics 24/7. Here's the rest of it.

Many aides and lobbyists believe that President Bush and Democrats -- should they take control of the House -- will have at least a few areas where compromise is possible over the next several months before the 2008 fight begins in earnest. The following is gleaned from several conversations at the end of last week.

To the extent that Democrats will have a "mandate" should they win control of one or both houses of Congress, surely it would be to do something to force the president's hand on Iraq policy. To a lesser extent, if Democrats try really hard they might be able to read a rejection of Bush's Social Security plan into the election results.

But this appears to be a protest election... more a rejection of President Bush than an endorsement of Democrats. As such, Democratic "political capital" won't be available to be squandered. So the president and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will essentially be faced with the same choice over the next year, before the 2008 race overwhelms everything: they can start that battle now, pick fights to fire up the base and "win by losing" legislatively. Or they can find some areas of common ground and "triangulate" to pass a few high profile items.

Several top Democratic aides and lobbyists polled last week think it will be a bit of the former, but more of the latter. For the president's part, what do he and his legacy have to gain by politics as usual? Why not take what chance you have to avoid the grim prospects of spending the next two years ceding the limelight to presidential hopefuls in the Senate while your agenda languishes?

For the Democrats, those in-the-know see a third message from voters come Wednesday: We are sick of partisan gridlock. If true, then the time is right for compromise.

So what issues constitute the middle ground between the president and Democrats? One obvious issue is immigration policy, where the votes will certainly be there to pass the president's goal of a path to citizenship and a guest worker program. Another might be extension of some of the tax cuts passed in Bush's first term that are set to expire after 2010, the $1,000 per child tax credit and "marriage penalty" relief, for example.

The Democratic caucus is likely to remain about 70% liberal, and the base that they represent will be calling for payback for 12 years of oppression at the hands of the GOP. But don't expect people like Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who is in line to head the premier investigative committee in the House, to overreach. Every Democrat that I spoke with on this topic over the last days has mentioned the name Dan Burton, by way of illustrating what they would like to avoid: turning the committee room into a circus. Having said that, investigations into Halliburton's Iraq contracts is an obvious and likely place for them to start, given the amount of attention Waxman has given to this topic over the past three years.

Neither base will be happy with Bush and Pelosi making nice. But as a matter of politics and strategy, this is what many smart people both on and off the Hill are expecting for the coming year.

Editor's note: Producer Mike Viqueira, who covers the House of Representatives for NBC News, contributed the following to our sister blog First Read. It's too good not to post here, as well. But just a reminder that you can get your political blog fix any time at www.FirstRead.MSNBC.com.

Let's be clear about what is at stake here on Tuesday. When you're talking about holding the majority in the U.S. House, you're talking about being in utter control of everything from how, when, and what is actually debated on the floor of the chamber to what is served for lunch in the cafeteria.

"The job of the minority is to make a quorum and to draw its pay." Words spoken by House Speaker Thomas Reed in 1890 that perfectly describe the sweeping hegemony of the majority party -- and emasculation of the minority -- that is as evident today as it was 116 years ago. The majority here controls every step of the process, and when you control the process, you control the substance.

It's not too much of an overstatement to say that the most oppressed minority in America is the minority here in the "lower body." If you're a member of the party out of power -- for the last 12 years, of course, the Democrats -- you typically are not permitted to have your bills considered in committee or on the floor; you can't get your amendments debated and voted on (especially the ones that have a chance of passing); you even have to go hat in hand to the majority staff in order to get a room to meet in. In short, you take it in the neck every time. This isn't "Schoolhouse Rock" and it never has been.

It's been this way since the time of Henry Clay, and through the years it has more or less held true regardless of which party is running the place. The Senate, where any one random member can raise his hand to object and gum up everything, is a completely different animal. But the House was designed to be more responsive to public sentiment (though the Founders were against the idea of a two-party system in Congress (Federalist #10, if you really care), and over time the majority has established rules and procedures that make it easy to exercise its will and run roughshod over those out of power. It's what the legislative geeks call a "majoritarian institution."

Yes, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Calif., has pledged to afford more rights to Republicans should Democrats take control come January 3. Just how much leeway she is willing to grant, however, might depend upon just how big a majority she holds. Tighter margins likely mean tighter controls. But whatever the case on the floor, Republicans would have minuscule staff on committees. Democrats holding the gavels would be the ones deciding what hearings to call, what oversight to conduct, and what investigations to undertake.

This is all about the House, of course, and its legislative product. The White House, and perhaps the Senate, will still be controlled by Republicans, which opens the door to an entirely different discussion about politics and strategy. We'll try that next time.

The language of love can once again be spoken in the halls of your House of Representatives today, as GOP leaders have quietly - almost furtively - re-labeled "Freedom Toast" as French Toast.

The switch in the House basement cafeteria, first reported in this morning's Washington Times, came at some point yesterday, the first week of an extended recess for the House. A trip downstairs this morning by yours truly confirmed the change: there, plain as day, the sign reads "French Toast" and "Fries."

Recall that it was the now embattled Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, along with Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., who were in the vanguard of the campaign to rename the comestibles "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast." They took their stand during the run-up to the Iraq war as the French were demurring in the face of efforts to get them to contribute men and materiel to the invasion.

Now, three and half years later, Jones is a Republican pariah due to his lonely call for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. For his part, Ney has been forced from the chairmanship of the committee in charge of running House operations after former House aides tied to Jack Abramoff pled guilty to bribing Ney with "a stream of things of value." Times do change.

A spokesman for Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., Ney's replacement as chairman of the House Administration Committee, says, "It's no big deal," and, "It's not news." This notwithstanding the fact that Ney and Jones had a big ol' press conference at the time of the initial change. The new spokesman is refusing requests for a photo-op.

But a new day has dawned and a new regime is in place. Word is that members had been asking about the change, and so, when not many people were looking, the switch was made.

There is a place, not so far away, where you can visit a political age of yesteryear. It's an enclave deep in the heart of the U.S. Capitol, and to find it all you must do is follow your nose through the halls of Congress and around the House chamber. Sooner or later you are bound to stumble into the Speakers' Lobby. Now, my friends, you're in flavor country.

The powers that be in your U.S. House have just made yet more encroachments into the ever-shrinking universe of public spaces where smoking is still allowed. Beginning this week, lighting up is no longer permitted in the outdoor courtyards, garages, lobbies, foyers, etc., on the House side of Capitol Hill. Smokers are now largely confined to two glassed-in, highly ventilated hamster cages in the adjacent office buildings.
   
But not all smokers.

If you're the sentimental type and you yearn for the days of the smoke-filled political salon -- or if you're simply a militant die-hard -- you can breathe easy. For there remains a hazy sanctuary for the unreconstructed, unrepentant pol who can puff away without concern for the second-hand smoke he is generating.
   
The Speakers' Lobby is the anteroom of the House chamber, and to enter is to be transported to another era of back room bosses and political machines. Decorum is the uniform of the day here, and even now you may not be admitted unless appropriately attired. Baroque portraits of long-forgotten House speakers hang in a clutter along the walls, their mutton-chopped jowls immortalized in oil. They look down upon a clubby scene that is probably not much changed from how it appeared back in their time: congressmen lounge in wingback chairs, feet up, smoking cigars or cigarettes and producing nimbus, carcinogenic formations of tobacco smoke. If you are a non-smoker or you're pregnant, enter at your own risk. It is the perfect anachronism and almost subversive in its political incorrectness.

There's new majority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, a longtime regular of the smoking klatsch on the Republican side of the room, still popping off the floor during votes to light up another Barclay. Boehner is button-holed more these days, supplicants interrupting his smoke break to petition for this favor or that. Rep. Sherwood Boelhert, R-N.Y., is another regular. Over on the Democratic side Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., can typically be found sitting alone with his nose in a newspaper and his teeth chomping on a gigantic Churchill. There are many other members of the brotherhood (I have yet to see a female member smoke in this space).

It is an indulgence that has survived the ages, destructive though it may be. But perhaps it's about more than just a pause that refreshes. Maybe it's a window on the true nature of the political animal: primordial in its tastes, protective of its turf, and open to reforming itself only when absolutely necessary. After all, this is the home of the sovereign Congress, a co-equal branch of government. The fact that executive branch buildings are smoke-free means little here. Or better yet, it provides a means to make a subtle point: Members allow themselves the pleasure of an indoor smoke as a assertion of their independence. They allow smoking to survive in the Speakers' Lobby for the simple reason that they can.

The House will today debate and likely pass a measure that would ensure the needs of household pets and service animals are taken into account when disaster preparedness plans are developed and presented to FEMA.

The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, HR 3858, was sponsored by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who can often be seen strolling through the Rayburn building with a small dog in tow. More information than you care to know about this fact was provided upon request by Lantos' office: "The little Westie mix who rules the Lantos office is named Max. His Hungarian name is Macko (pronounced "MOT-sko"), which translates to "Teddy Bear." Max is owned by the Lantos' neighbor, a researcher at the Congressional Research Service, who cannot take pets to work. So he contentedly spends his days by Tom's side."

The bill would require Senate approval and a presidential signature if it is to become the law of the land.

A few dozen very angry people on both sides of the immigration debate faced off outside the Capitol today, hurling bellicose insults and calling each other racists and fascists in two different languages. The occasion was a rally by the Minutemen in Senate Park, where leaders of that organization took turns bashing the president and the Senate for what they believe will be the ultimate passage of an "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.

Emotions were running very high as a group of about two dozen counter-protesters gathered 80 or so yards away and -- with the help of a bullhorn -- taunted the Minutemen with chants like, "You forgot your hoods!" and, "No Minutemen, no KKK, no fascists in the U.S.A.!" and so on.

"Go to hell!" shouted Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrest back at them. He called the protesters "proponents of anarchy, communism, and the true segregationists in this country."

Much of the Minutemen's ire was directed at the president, and some in the crowd shouted "Traitor!" when his name was mentioned. The Senate didn't fare much better. "They are literally going to shove amnesty down our throats," says Gilchrest of the pending legislation. He foretold of the emergence of a third-party president in 2008 if things keep going the way they are. Another speaker, John Clark, warned that anyone who votes for "amnesty... will be voted out of office. Period!" Gilchrest says the bill will lead to a "mobacracy." Supporters in the crowd of about 50 sported buttons that featured the president's face with a red slash though it that read, "George, you're fired!"

Other speakers warned of a "tsunami" of immigrants who will propagate so rapidly as to number 200 million in very short order. "This is a place where we salute the red, white, and blue. Not the red, white, and green!" declared Minuteman Stephen Eichler. An especially vitriolic speaker named Barbara Coe raised the prospect of armed revolution; "We will die on our feet before we submit on our knees!" she declared. A dog sported a button that read: "Got Papers?"

Nonetheless, Gilchrest asserted in a Q&A with reporters that the Minutemen "are not immigrant bashers."

At the conclusion of the rally, Minutemen and their supporters walked over to where the counter-protesters were demonstrating and the fun really started. If it weren't for a phalanx of Capitol police who formed a buffer between the two groups, we might have had us an old school riot.

The political rhetoric is heating up on the Medicare Rx plan as the May 15 sign-up date looms.
Democratic leaders plan a large rally-style event this afternoon to call on the administration to extend the deadline, but Republicans appeared on camera this morning to deliver some pre-emptive salvos. To say that they oppose an extension would be an understatement.
"It's absolute sheer hypocrisy," says Rep. Bill Thomas of the Democratic call. "They take the law of the land and try to create doubt and confusion...and then complain that we don't extend the deadline."

"In five days seniors and people with disabilities face a lifetime 7% Bush prescription drug plan tax," countered House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of the penalty for those who don't make the Monday deadline. A Pelosi spokeswoman adds that Democrats have had "more than 100" town hall meetings with constituents" about the plan.
But Republicans accuse Dems of "trashing" the plan instead of trying to help constituents understand it and sign up. However, they claim that even given this, sign-up levels are reaching historic levels for comparable government programs, and that seniors are saving hundreds, and even thousands of dollars.
"After 6 months of scaring seniors and discouraging them from signing up, they have the personal gall to call for an extension of the deadline," said a worked-up Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT).
The Democratic rally begins at 1pm EDT.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and some friends were on camera this afternoon to deliver a rhetorical beat-down of President Bush and his "rubber stamp" Congress, and to apply the charge of "corruption, cronyism, and incompetence" to the current price of gas.

"These people can't help themselves. They are so tied to big oil that they can't grasp what energy independence is," said Pelosi. Due to this fact, she said "only Democrats" can solve the nation's energy problems.

What about those GOP charges of obstruction?

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. It's appalling that they would even resort to that pathetic approach," she said, and went on to list her familiar complaints about the Bush energy bills: They were written behind closed doors by and for energy companies, which benefited by $12 billion worth of subsidies as a result.

Pelosi, along with Dems. Stupak, Clyburn, and DeLauro, called for greater development of alternative energy sources like bio fuels.  "Let's look to the Midwest, not the Mideast," she said.

They were not optimistic about the possibility of the FTC investigation showing results. "It's going to be another whitewash by this White House," said Stupak. "It should be the shortest and cheapest investigation in history. All that is required is for the president to make a short trip to the mirror," said Clyburn.

The House returns from the two-week Spring break today to a modified, limited, election year freak-out over the price of gas.

A budget, extension of tax breaks, pension legislation, lobbying reform, and immigration/border security... all stuck in limbo or limping towards floor consideration over the upcoming five-week stretch leading to the next recess. But when it comes to a pocketbook issue that threatens the birthright of every American to drive where they want when they want, the Congress will respond with alacrity. This is especially true with an election looming in six months.

No one is pretending that much can be done in the short term to lower the price of gas, and a lot of what we are about to hear this week is going to amount to finger pointing over who did -- or didn't do -- what to keep prices down. But House Majority Leader John Boehner, Ohio, has just given us an idea of what he thinks should be considered here in Congress to address the situation, and House committees are outlining future plans to hold hearings on price gouging and oil company profits.

Boehner says that the country needs to conserve more; look at alternative energy sources, and up production by drilling in places like, yes, ANWR. On the alternative fuel front, Boehner touts "biofuels" as "continuing to show promise," and wants to consider further incentives for the development of hydrogen-powered cars. And while he backs the effort to closely scrutinize the profit margins of oil companies, he is dead set against a windfall profits tax. He says that was tried in the 80s and "failed miserably."

Democrats are lining up to claim that Republicans have done nothing to keep gas prices in line. They say they have a plan to empower the FTC to enforce price gouging, roll back the $12 billion in tax breaks and subsidies given to big oil and gas companies in the GOP-passed energy bills, and develop alternative energy sources.

Another issue that will be generating buzz on the House side is committee consideration of a port security bill. On Wednesday, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., will offer a measure that would require every bit of cargo that comes into this country to undergo a security inspection. The vote is expected to be close, with leading business associations here in Washington fighting to defeat the measure. Boehner today declared his opposition, asserting that it's "not practical" to inspect all cargo until new technologies can be implemented. As it stands, less than 10% of cargo entering American ports is inspected.

On the floor, the much-awaited lobby reform bill is slated for consideration. Over the recess the bill was weakened somewhat by Republican leaders, especially around the provisions that deal with the reporting of lobbyists' contact with members.

In terms of actual legislating, the prospects for a lot getting done between now and election day are bleak and getting bleaker. But if you have an interest in politics, the next few months are going to be fascinating as Republicans and Democrats engage in a life and death struggle for control of the House.