Next for Scott Brown: A Capital Crib -- but Where?

Then again, all that shlepping is tax deducible, and it sends a very strong family values message in an era of hideously imploding political marriages, from dithering Mark Sanford and his Argentine soul mate on the religious right to reptilian John Edwards, that lying-sack-of-narcissism, on the left.

Just so you know, the last famously commuting senator worth mentioning was Joe Biden, who jumped an Amtrak every night for Delaware and returned every morning. Of course, Wilmington is a scant 71 minutes away by fast train.

So let me lay out some options, from the bottom up.

The lowest form of displaced domesticity would be sleeping on the couch in Teddy's ornate Russell Building office, and showering in the members' gym (unless The Lion of the Senate made substantial plumbing improvements to his private loo, which wouldn't surprise me at all). Office-as-crash pad has been done before, of course, though more often by parsimonious House members than senators. And frankly, you seem like a guy who likes a slightly higher level of creature comforts.

For all other options, it's best if you live on Capitol Hill, says Don Denton, a former Appropriations Committee staffer turned real estate agent, who has been moving properties there for nearly 40 years. Back in '90 and '91, he rented the second bedroom of his condo to bachelor Sen. John Kerry. "He was up at 7 a.m. and didn't come back until 7 p.m. or later. He leaves Thursday night after the last vote and doesn't come back until Tuesday morning. When Barack Obama was in the Senate, he lived in a one bedroom apartment on the ground floor of a row house built 30 years ago on Stanton Park. It was adequate. Michelle hated it." Both have moved on to much more luxurious digs.

Apartments on the Hill come in all iterations, from "English basements" that get limited natural light through sidewalk-level windows so you won't feel like you're moldering in a Kennett Square mushroom cellar, to industrial-mod lofts. Large quarters are good if you expect frequent family visits, or want a home office/stealth war room should you decide to shoot the moon with a 2012 White House run. Buying a place might make mortgage-deduction sense, but given the trouble John McCain had remembering how many homes he actually owns (seven), you may not wish to acquire your own No. 6, no matter how modest. (For those keeping track, Brown has the legal residence in Wrentham, about 33 miles southwest of Boston; a New Hampshire getaway, and three Massachusetts investment flats. I've left the Aruba time-share off the list because it's so short-term.)

If you need housing ideas, your own Bay State colleagues offer quite an eyeful, ranging from opulent to appalling, obscure to notorious.

Topping the housing pyramid is the posh Georgetown mansion Kerry shares with his wife, the former Teresa Heinz. Assessed at more than $4 million, it is filled with fine antiques and art and boasts a lovely walled garden. Rep. Ed Markey and his wife, Dr. Susan Blumenthal, have a homey place in the affluent Maryland suburb of Chevy Chase, but the commute can be awful.

At the raunchier end of the shelter spectrum is Rep. Bill Delahunt, one of four Democrats in California Rep. George Miller's famously dirty "animal house." Delahunt sleeps in the living room along with Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, while Miller and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the resident rat-slayer, each get an upstairs bedroom. Rep. Barney Frank's Capitol Hill apartment became the scene of a 1980s scandal when it was learned that a local pimp and prostitute whom Frank called his personal assistant used the congressman's flat for illicit assignations. And so on . . .

Denton predicts Brown will rent, given that "the minimum he'd pay for a house within a dozen blocks of the Capitol is $800,000. A one-bedroom apartment in a decent location, close enough to the office so he could go home for a nap, or a shower, and get back if he had to for a vote, runs $1,500 to $2,000 a month." Without furniture.

"It would not be prudent for him to plop down nearly a million dollars for a home," says Denton. "He'll probably end up bunking with someone. For the next six months at least, housing is certainly not a priority. He comes home at night and flops. He's out the door by daylight. Who cares where he lives? He's just going to try to figure out where the bathrooms are in the Capitol."