The House on Tuesday will unveil the official portrait of former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., in a ceremony in Statuary Hall.
Hastert was speaker from 1999-2007 and held the job longer than any other Republican.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will be at the ceremony, along with Minority Leader John Boehner and former House Republican Leader Bob Michel, of Illinois.
After the ceremony, Hastert’s likeness will be moved to the Speakers Lobby just outside the House chamber, where reporters mill around, waiting to talk to lawmakers. The long, narrow hallway is lined with portraits of many of the 52 speakers that have held the gavel, including Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, Massachusetts Democrat, who ran the House from 1977 to 1987 and Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who was in charge from 1995-1999. Gingrich is pictured holding his famous “Contract with America.” Remember that?
Gingrich, the only other living Republican speaker, is not on the list to attend the ceremony.
The arrival of a new portrait means that an older portrait might have to be bumped out of the Speaker’s Lobby and into the stairwells on either side of the chamber, where many other speaker portraits hang.
If so, you can be sure it will be a Republican that gets an eviction notice, though an aide to Pelosi said he knows of no plans to move anything at this point.
