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Over the years, enlivened chiefly by disputes about the relative merits of Maine and Idaho potatoes, the menu has pursued its drab all-American course.

Individual senators, with an eye to the voters back home, occasionally introduced smelts from Michigan, soft-shell crabs from Maryland, oysters from Washington, grapefruit from Florida.

But plain old bean soup, served daily since the turn of the century ( at the insistence of the late Sen. Fred Dubois of Idaho ), made clear to the citizenry that the Senate's stomach was in the right place.