At first blush, it would seem that Minority Leader John A. Boehner has cultivated a devoted following among his Democratic colleagues. During and after virtually every vote on the House floor, the Ohio Republican looks to be hosting droves from the majority’s caucus. Sometimes, they are even lined up outside the minority leader’s office suite.

But as is often the case with Congress, Boehner’s cross-aisle appeal is actually a tale of access. Even now that his party is in the minority, Boehner has something that many Democrats want — or, more precisely, need.

His office occupies a key pivot point between the House chamber and the nearest ladies’ bathroom on the second floor of the Capitol.

Of the House’s 74 women members and delegates, 53 are Democrats. And the minority leader’s suite became a popular shortcut — or a holdover spot for legislators anxiously awaiting a vacancy in the three-stall facility — during the four-year tenure of Boehner’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, who’s claimed much more luxurious digs since the Democrats took control and she was promoted from minority leader to Speaker.

In her old job, Pelosi had an open-door policy for all the women of the House so they could get to the lavatory as expeditiously as possible. She even permitted them to bring their families through, so that husbands and children could wait in the “Congressional Women’s Reading Room” — named for former Democratic Rep. Lindy Boggs of New Orleans — while the lawmakers were indisposed.

And in this policy matter, at least, Pelosi remained studiously bipartisan. Republican women were just as welcome to cut through the office, no matter what fight raged on the floor. And, although the GOP side of the chamber positioned that party’s female members closer to an alternate route to the bathroom — down the principal corridor of the House wing and through Statuary Hall — many used the minority-office shortcut for the sake of privacy, because they could avoid almost any potential contact with tourists or reporters.

Still, one can envision some potential discomfort for the Democratic lounge clientele. The new minority leader, after all, is not only a Republican, he’s also, well, a man.

But it appears these are not serious obstacles. “I’m a creature of habit, so I keep going through,” Democrat Nita M. Lowey of New York said as she made her way to Boehner’s office after a vote. “They haven’t stopped us yet!”

Because the Capitol’s indoor plumbing was installed during the time of all-male Congresses, the men of the House aren’t confronted with such tough choices. There is a capacious — and by all accounts lavish — men’s room within steps of the chamber, at the south end of the Speaker’s Lobby. Lawmakers can keep tabs on the House debate while washing their hands thanks to a wall-mounted television. They can dry those hands in the warmth of a fireplace, and if they have a few extra minutes they can avail themselves of a shoeshine facility.

The women of the Senate have faced similarly stark imbalances in washroom access. For 70 years after the first woman senator took office in 1922, female senators used a public restroom. An assistant Senate historian, Betty K. Koed, says the only bathroom attached to the Senate chamber was marked “senators,” but open only to the men.

After the 1992 election — the fabled “Year of the Woman,” in which the number of women senators tripled from two to six — that bathroom was a boys’ club no longer. The space was remodeled and divided so that female senators — there are a record 16 in the 110th Congress — would no longer have to wait with tourists for stalls or head back to their personal offices.

Before Pelosi was sworn in as the first woman Speaker, reporters asked her if she planned to switch the men’s room over. “I’m for it!” she declared. Her aides, as aides will, reiterated that she really was speaking in jest.

For now, the women of Congress seem resigned to working around the Capitol’s bathroom inequities. And although many say they have not discussed it with Boehner, they do appreciate the use of his office. Indeed, they sportingly compliment its recent makeover, which suggests the no-nonsense minority leader may have an unsuspected metrosexual streak. “They have a new color, and it’s just fabulous!” says Connecticut DemocratRosa DeLauro.

A Boehner spokesman, Brian Kennedy, says the GOP leader is happy to accommodate the female members of the House. But he jokes that “we might have to start charging the Democratic members if they don’t get back to regular order soon.” Access is access, after all.