Served 34 years in the House and as Speaker for 2 of those. A distinguished service record - assuming you don't count the time he beat an aide with a hammer, stabbed her with a steak knife, slashed her throat, and then put her in his car and went to see a movie. But hey - everyone makes mistakes, right?
Marshall McLuhan once called him "the first radio novelist." Interestingly, he once called Marshall McLuhan "a dried up old bag of shit."
(d) October 16th, 1999