Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., won a special election in 1955, and was sworn into Congress in December of that year. That is closer to the beginning of the Spanish-American War than it is to today.

There are a ton of interesting things to say about Dingell and his nearly 60 years in the House. Back in 2002, I was intrigued by Dingell’s redistricting-caused primary against Ann Arbor liberal Lynn Rivers — a war between old-school blue collar Democrats and the newer breed of wealthier, social-liberal Democrats.