Boehner's Role Model? Nick Longworth, Gentleman From Ohio Circa 1925

For years, House Speaker John Boehner gazed at a portrait on his office wall of an old-fashioned looking guy with a bushy mustache -- Nicholas Longworth, the last Ohioan to hold the speaker's office and a role model for Boehner.

Like Longworth, Boehner grew up in Cincinnati, served in the Ohio legislature, then set off on a slow but steady rise to power on Capitol Hill. Both men had to deal with ideological divides in their own party and pesky liberals on the Democratic side, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. And both enjoyed a good time. The well-liked Longworth, elected speaker in 1925, could often be found in Washington holding court with a fiddle in one hand and a glass of bourbon in the other.

To denizens of today's Congress, the name Longworth is best known for the homely office building that bears his name. Sandwiched between the Rayburn and Cannon buildings, it is the home office for Boehner, numerous other lawmakers from both parties and the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

"In addition to the obvious Cincinnati connection, Boehner has been an admirer of Speaker Longworth for his belief that the House runs best when it remains close to the people," spokesman Cory Fitz told the newspaper. Boehner has quoted Longworth "a number of times recently while making the case for a more open government that listens to the American people."

Fair enough. But there are also striking differences between the two Ohioans. The patrician Longworth came from one of Cincinnati's old money families, graduated from Harvard and married Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice. Boehner grew up in a working class German Catholic family, lived for a time above his father's tavern and worked his way through Xavier University.

Even so, Longworth's career in Congress got Boehner's attention. Last October, with GOP prospects for success in the mid-term election growing brighter almost daily, Politico reported that Boehner had reread the chapter on Longworth in Dick and Lynne Cheney's 1983 book "Kings of the Hill." Longworth, the Cheneys wrote, was initially seen as a lightweight by some of his contemporaries. But he made his mark by asserting the power of the House against the White House (Republican presidents in Longworth's day) and cutting a big tax deal with the Senate.