So I was doing a little research and got side tracked, as one does, by Speakers portraits and their different personal touches.

For example, here's Fredrick Muhlenberg of the First Congress, complete with papers and a quill. But they get better.

Here's Henry Clay (12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th Congresses) looking regal AF with what appears to be about 6 layers atop one another. Let's hope this was winter.

Speaker Schuyler Colfax (1863-1869) presided over some of the most transformative Congresses in U.S. history.

He is also the most "Civil War" looking speaker.

Here's Speaker Samuel Randall (1876-1881) offering maybe the least comfortable stare ever.

He was rabidly partisan, significantly expanded the speakership, but was nearly disowned by his party. He was later appointed Approps Chair but had his bills basically stolen from him.

Speaker Thomas Bracket Reed probably the most entertaining Speaker to serve.

Famous for making the House a majority-run institution, he said "The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch."

Speaker Joe Cannon's (1903-1911) portrait presents him as relaxed and measured, which is funny because he was an ENORMOUS a--hole in the chair.

Brilliant Speaker, but more in a bulldozer rather than savvy political negotiator kind of way.

Here's Speaker Nicholas Longworth. He's notable for reasons.

I really don't get why some historians obsess over him.

Speaker Joseph Burns (1935-1936) enjoying a book and cigar while, presumably, passing the Social Security Act and combing his eyebrows.

Speaker Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn, the longest serving Speaker in U.S. history, at an appropriately-sized desk.

He was so short LBJ used to kiss the top of his head... which is weird... Because LBJ.

Here's Tip O'Neill gripping a chair in a room.

I presume this is a metaphor for his speakership. If you know what that metaphor is, please email me.

Newt Gingrich is the only Speaker doing a weird hand thing. The Contract with America makes total sense. The other hand is waiving? Offering a dance? Making an obvious yet unspoken point?

Speaker John Boehner.

It's a small travesty a glass of merlot and cigarette did not make the portrait.

Pelosi doesn't have an official portrait that I'm aware of, though I'd lobby it should include a background of dozens of colleagues, looking longly at her in THE chair, who wanted to win leadership only to have their careers crushed under her historical tenure.

Also, I apologize for this thread.