Johnson is the sixth Republican elevated to the speakership since 1994. The five who preceded him all saw their time in the office end in relative degrees of defeat or frustration.

The status of the speakership has been declining for years. McCarthy's ouster is an extreme example in a sequence of events that have made the speaker more vulnerable — and thus weaker.

McHenry, the bespectacled and bow-tied gentleman from North Carolina, is in the spotlight as the speaker pro tempore, the reluctant leader of a paralyzed House of Representatives.

Cannon resisted government regulation of business, supported protective tariffs and frowned upon change in general. It was said that had he been present at the Creation he would have voted against it.