LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: How Congress Stayed Wet in the Dry Years of Prohibition.

While members of Congress may have championed Prohibition laws on the House floor, many of them happily broke the rules in any of the 3,000 speakeasies scattered throughout downtown Washington. And when members needed to restock their personal hooch supply, they turned to one man: George Cassiday.

During his time as a booze distributor on the Hill, Cassiday estimated that four out of five members of Congress drank—and many of them availed themselves of Cassiday’s services. Congress even gave Cassiday his own storeroom in the basement of the Cannon office building. . . .

During Prohibition, D.C.’s close, personal relationship with alcohol didn’t end—it was just on the down-low. Peck estimates that from 1920 to 1933, 22,000 gallons of bootlegged liquor flowed into the District every week. More than 3,000 speakeasies opened in Washington, many of them operated out of the second story of row houses or in the backrooms of legitimate businesses.

Nowadays, though, they just go ahead and exempt themselves.