Two comments, seven tips, and five recs last time! That brings a bonus segment from the Congress section (because I wrote it after last Friday), followed by half of the Interesting Individuals:
Congress is led by several individuals in both chambers, though only the positions of Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, and President of the Senate pro tempore are mandated by the Constitution, the second which is simply another title applied to the Vice President, and that office is rarely used. The party leaders and whips were established in 1899 in the House; previously the chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee had directed the floor, but with the House much larger than it had been previously, the incoming Speaker David Henderson of Iowa labeled Sereno Payne of New York the new majority leader, to help guide the House as Henderson became more of a national figure. In the Senate, the office of Minority Leader was instated in 1920, with Democrat Charles Underwood of Alabama holding the post; Republicans copied the practice a few years later, with Charles Curtis of Kansas being the first formal Majority Leader, though Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts had performed the same duties before him.
The President of the Senate pro tempore is on paper a role similar to, but more limited than, the speakership; in practice, it has faded in and out of importance, as well as up and down the list of presidential succession. At the moment, the president pro tem is a purely ceremonial position, assigned to the most senior (not oldest, though they are often the same) member of the majority; since 2001, when the most senior member of the minority has served as president pro tem previously, there is a president pro tem emeritus, with no official duties but more staff, and an advisory role to the actual leadership. With the exception of the president and president pro tem, leadership in the Senate largely goes to whomever wants it and can muster up support: Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell were both first elected in the nineties, which puts them only in the top twenty ranks of Senate seniority. House leadership tends to rely more on previous service: Pelosi and Boehner both served as minority leaders before they assumed the Speakership, and Cantor and McCarthy also held posts in the leadership before they moved up when Republicans gained the majority in 2011. Reid and McConnell both served as whips before becoming leaders, but their predecessors, Daschle and Frist, did not, and McConnell's successor as whip, Jon Kyl of Arizona, is retiring, so it's very unlikely that he'll become leader. In both houses, the actual presiding officer of floor debates, except when passing particularly significant bills, will be a junior member of the chamber, so that everyone learns parliamentary procedure, which is what governs every bit of Congressional proceedings.
The first (and for quite a while, the only) woman in Congress, Jeannette Rankin (R-MT), served two terms, one in each of Montana's districts (yes, it was entitled to multiple districts at one point. Most states [except Alaska] get multiple seats at some point, even if they later go back to one.), and used each to vote against the United States entering a World War. That didn't go well either time, and in fact, she needed a police escort in the forties because she was the only one to vote no. Interestingly, the successor to her second term was later elected to the Senate from Montana, and Mike Mansfield became the Democratic Majority Leader, between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Byrd.
On that subject, Robert Byrd was not always the faintly embarrassing incredibly old Senator from West Virginia (a few years ago, when asked for advice to aspiring politicians, he said "don't join the KKK, it will haunt you for the rest of your life." Many people were not aware that Congressional participation in hate groups was a pressing issue.). He was actually vibrant at one point, not to mention very savvy on the rules of the Senate, and even ran for President. You can guess how well that turned out. Oddly, Robert Byrd was one of the few party leaders in the Senate who actually stayed in the Senate after relinquishing leadership. Usually Majority Leaders retire from both positions at the same time. After he died in mid-2010, Governor Manchin appointed Carte Goodwin to replace him, and won the special election for his seat, running farther to the right than Byrd had done - out of necessity, since West Virginia has become more conservative, and Byrd was a state institution who could pretty much vote however he liked and still be reelected.
Mike Gravel was not always this old coot running for President with crazy-ass ideas like the entire population voting on Constitutional amendments, though when he was in the Senate he frequently went out on limbs like that. He was also a lot more attractive back then, looking a lot like Scott Bakula, which undoubtedly helped him in his initial primary challenge to Ernest Grueing, who was 81 years old at the time. Gravel had been a jerk while serving in the Alaska House of Representatives, often being high-handed as Speaker, and once in the Senate, where he was the most junior member in a chamber where privileges came almost entirely by seniority, he did not change his behavior, which was unfortunate for his career. He made a name for himself opposing the Vietnam War and nuclear testing, especially in Alaska, though he was not terribly successful in either; he also spent a lot of time on the Interior Committee (now the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources), and Alaska has a lot of Interior, so that's probably the only thing that got him reelected once. Gravel also fought the draft extensively, which was extensively connected to Vietnam, obviously, and though his filibuster attempts failed, his actions there alerted him to Daniel Ellsberg, who had been trying to get the Pentagon Papers into the public eye. Since Gravel was a member of Congress, he could not be criminally prosecuted for any speech he made in Congress, including material that was classified or politically sensitive. Gravel agreed to talk about, among other things, the unauthorized bombing of Cambodia and the unlawful expansion of the war that had been pursued for the primary reason of "avoiding an embarrassing defeat". Gravel somehow managed to get reelected in 1974, but over the next few years, he managed to piss off every demographic group in the state, and lost the primary for his next term. After that, he went insane, figuratively speaking. He ran for President in 2008 to promote a number of issues, including the national initiative and the FairTax(tm); after losing the races for the Democratic and Libertarian nominations, he declared that his political career was over, shocking the people who had assumed his political career had died nearly thirty years before.
Ted Stevens is the most senior Senator ever to be defeated in a general election, as well as the only Alaskan Senator to do so. Ernest Gruening (D) was primaried out by Mike Gravel, who was primaried out by Clark Gruening, Ernest's grandson, who lost to Frank Murkowski, who appointed his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, to the seat when he was elected governor. Murkowski was elected in her own right in 2004, but narrowly lost the nomination in 2010, after her opponent, Joe Miller, was endorsed by Sarah Palin. She nevertheless mounted a very credible write-in campaign, and became the first Senator elected via write-in since Strom Thurmond. In the lame-duck session, Murkowski voted for all five major bills (DADT repeal, the DREAM Act, New START, 9/11 healthcare, and tax cuts bundled with unemployment extension), which put her to the left of a substantial chunk of the Democratic caucus. Anyway, due to Frank's action, Alaska Governors can no longer appoint replacement Senators: there must be a special election. Walter Hickel (R) appointed Ted Stevens to replace Bob Bartlett (D), who died in surgery in 1968, and was defeated by Mark Begich, formerly the mayor of Anchorage; Stevens later died in a plane crash, the second Alaskan congressman to do so. That's right, Alaska has had seven senators in 50 years. Hey, Hawaii's had only five, and one of its current Senators has been serving since 1963.
There are currently three openly gay people in Congress, all in the House: Jared Polis and Tammy Baldwin (of Colorado and Wisconsin, respectively), who were out when elected, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who was outed in his 3rd term, but has continued to be reelected since 1981. Frank succeeded Father Robert Drinan, who retired after Pope John Paul II demanded that all priests withdraw from politics; his superiors had not liked his involvement in the first place, nor his pro-choice stance. Drinan was the first priest to serve, but not the last: Robert John Cornell served two terms in the House from Wisconsin, but was defeated rather than being forced to leave. Both priests served as Democrats in the late seventies. Although there are no priests currently, several members of Congress were preachers or other clergymembers before their election, as well as some governors.
Frank Lautenberg has been junior Senator and senior Senator both twice and served in both of New Jersey's Senate seats, for largely the same reason. In 1982, Harrison Williams was caught in the Abscam sting, and resigned under pressure; New Jersey's Republican Governor, Thomas Kean, appointed Nicholas F. Brady to replace him, which was the last time a Republican has represented New Jersey in the Senate to date. Lautenberg defeated Brady in the general election, and served three terms before retiring in 2000, replaced by Jon Corzine; he was junior to Bill Bradley almost all of that time, who ran for President in 2000. Then the incumbent Democrat Bob Torricelli was caught in the midst of some very questionable financial deals in 2002, and Lautenberg took his place on the ballot, winning the election, and regaining his former senior Senator status in 2006 when Jon Corzine resigned to be sworn in as Governor.