Nancy Pelosi Is Awesome, Continued

Now, of course, there's no guarantee that this will happen, but Nancy Pelosi's 3 years, 363 days of service as Speaker of the House put her 18th all-time, two measly days behind Joseph Martin, the Massachusetts foil and of and gavel-swapper with Texan Sam Rayburn. Supposing the Democrats take back the House next fall (which I admit is a reasonably big "if"), there's every reason to expect Pelosi to add two years to her record, which would put her at 5 years, 363 days. That would be seventh all-time. Behind the following people: Sam Rayburn, who is never ever going to lose his #1 spot, Tip O'Neill, John McCormack, Dennis Hastert, Champ Clark, and some guy named Henry Clay. If she could get another four years somehow, without losing another four anomalous days, she'd move ahead of Hastert into fourth all-time, behind only Rayburn, O'Neill, and McCormack. Obviously, as I said, there's no way to know if that will happen, but I bet you anything that John Boehner is never going to see his name very high on this list.