New speaker, new style. Paul Ryan, bearded, not the first, yet good to compete with Tom Selleck or Sam Elliot for Movember award

(quote)

The spending bill presents Mr. Ryan with his most important test so far as speaker and will be a measure of how long members will remain enchanted with him. He can only hope their newfound ardor will match that for his new beard.
The short exchange had many signets of Mr. Ryan’s nascent leadership style, which contrasts sharply with that of his predecessor, John A. Boehner. Mr. Ryan has for the most part pushed the privilege of crafting legislation — and with it, the responsibilities — out of the leadership offices and back into the hands of members, replacing Mr. Boehner’s smoke-filled rooms, at least for now, with energy bar-lined committee conference rooms. When he wants to chat, he texts. In a grooming contrast to Mr. Boehner that seems almost willful, Mr. Ryan now also shuns shaving.

Proud of his furry face, Mr. Ryan wondered on social media whether he was, in fact, the first bearded House speaker in a century. While it was has not quite been 100 years, Mr. Ryan was close. According to the House historian, the last speaker with a beard was the appropriately named Frederick H. Gillett, who presided over the chamber until 1925.

Politicians have generally preferred to be fresh-faced for much of the last century. However, as historians have noted, that was not always the case.

The House’s History, Art and Archives department dug into the subject in 2013 and found that Speaker Thomas B. Reed, Republican of Maine, garnered headlines in The Boston Daily Globe, thanks to two weeks’ worth of growth on his upper lip. In November 1895, the newspaper characterized his mustache as a “trifle fuller than before and somewhat longer, with a downward curve that promises to give his smile more the general appearance of a sneer.”

In 1919, the Republican caucus elected Frederick Huntington Gillett Speaker of the United States House of Representatives on the first ballot (He continued as Speaker for six years). He represented a contrast to the earlier, assertive leadership style of Joe Cannon, the Speaker when the Republicans lost control of the House in the 1910 election. Gillett was expected to exercise less control than his predecessor, since he was characterized by one reporter as someone who did not drink coffee in the morning "for fear it would keep him awake all day". He continued as Speaker for six years, the remainder of his time in the House. In October 2015, Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is elected the 54th and current Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ryan is a member of the Republican Party who has served as the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district since 1999 and as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman since January 2015. Ryan previously served as Chairman of the House Budget Committee from 2011 to 2015.

@Movember - The Movember Foundation is a global charity raising funds and awareness for men’s health. Movember (a portmanteau of the Australian-English diminutive word for moustache, "mo", and "November"; also known as No-Shave November) is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November.

(unquote)

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia, Zach Gibson / The New York Times, tasteofcinema.com, Sony Pictures, fashionEphemera, and the Movember Foundation