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Thirty-eight years ago this week, Republican Rick McIntyre, who’d won his House election in Indiana’s 8th district, arrived at the Capitol to be sworn in to the 99th Congress. But instead, something extraordinary happened — something that would inflict political wounds that would never heal and send shockwaves through American history, affect the outcome of one presidential election and presage the anger and distrust that led to an insurrection following another.

As the liberal speaker of the House began to swear in members, Democratic Majority Leader Jim Wright spoke up: “I object to the oath being administered to the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. McIntyre,” he said. “I base this upon facts and statements which I consider to be reliable.”

Rick McIntyre was not sworn in. Six months later, a three-person task force — two Democrats, one Republican — created by the House to investigate the election and ultimately conduct its own fiercely contested recount determined Democrat Frank McCloskey to be the true winner. He won, the task force said, by four votes.

Democrats did have reason to question McIntyre’s win, but the move was still remarkable — a legislative body evidently overriding the will of the citizens of southern Indiana and dismissing the assessment of the Indiana secretary of state. It was also the beginning of something much larger.

“The saga of ‘Indiana 8’ was a foundational moment in modern politics, animating a battered Republican Party into an angry and cohesive rebellion and steeling and training a cadre of young operatives for a new post-election playbook that would affect myriad recounts to come and indeed the tack and upshot of the most famous one of all — the 2000 presidential election in Florida,” writes Michael Kruse.

“Ultimately, too, Indiana 8 anticipated the Donald Trump-led talk of ‘Stop the Count’ and ‘Stop the Steal’ in 2020 and 2022 that reverberates still heading toward 2024. … And in the end, it showed the ways short-term wins can lead to long-term consequences — namely, the erosion of confidence on the part of the public and even the politicians themselves in the fairness of an electoral system elementally important to democracy.”

Read the story.

“[He is a] dentificial young man with more teeth than brains.”

Can you guess who said this about Teddy Roosevelt, Jr.? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**

You think Kevin McCarthy had the worst week ever? Not really. When your friends inevitably bring up the House speaker meltdown over the weekend, remind them things have been a lot worse (from POLITICO’s Marty Kady):

— They may be angry, restless and frustrated, but so far none of the lawmakers has beaten another member to a pulp with a cane on the chamber floor, as Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina did to Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts back in 1856, in a dispute over slavery.

— There was also the time the British burned the Capitol building in August of 1814, when the red coats marched on Washington and torched the House and Senate, still under construction. President James Madison didn’t let it slow things down — he convened Congress in a nearby hotel after the burning.

— You think this is dysfunctional? Capitol Hill denizens still have horror stories about New Year’s Eve 2012, when the nation went over the fiscal cliff as several spending and tax provisions expired. The 2 a.m. vote on 1/1/2013 showed just how dysfunctional Congress had become.

— Here’s one for the policy nerds (like me): The notorious Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit vote in 2003 started in the middle of the night on a Friday, and the vote was held open for hours (instead of the usual 15 minutes) so that leaders could cajole just enough members to approve the bill.

— Finally, on this date two years ago, the Capitol was ransacked by Trump supporters trying to overthrow the election. It was a dramatic, traumatizing moment that is still reverberating today as Jan. 6 defendants go to jail and election deniers still have a voice on the House floor.

Who Defends the Capital? … The National Guard’s lacking response to the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6 has inspired a lot of finger-pointing. Was the Trump administration to blame? Poor law enforcement planning? In his new memoir, Courage Under Fire, controversial ex-chief of U.S. Capitol Police Mark Sund connects the hesitation to call in the Guard on Jan. 6 to the George Floyd protests, when Trump’s heavy-handed use of the military drew widespread criticism. In his view, the politicization of law enforcement puts Washingtonians at risk. “It’s healthy, in a free country, to feel uncomfortable about having armed forces sort out partisan battles,” writes Michael Schaffer in this week’s Capital City column. “But it’s dangerous to not police political lawlessness because the authorities are afraid they’ll be dragged by one side or the other.”

Thirty-five percent … of Gen Z say they are “very proud” to be an American, compared to 53 percent of millennials, 63 percent of Gen X and 70 percent of baby boomers.

Nancy Reagan’s Cold War Snowstorm … It was 1983, and Secretary of State George Shultz was getting nowhere. His hopes of easing tensions with the Kremlin had been dashed by top administration officials, who preferred rattling their sabers to diplomacy. It worried Nancy Reagan; she didn’t want the president’s strong rhetoric on the Soviets to kill his chances of becoming a peacemaker. When a snowstorm smothered Washington, she saw an opportunity: She invited Shultz to a private dinner at the White House — and what happened next would change the trajectory of the Cold War. Philip Taubman tells the story in this excerpt adapted from his new book about Schultz, which he’ll discuss with Bob Woodward at Politics & Prose on Jan. 17.

The Speaker of the House holds tremendous responsibilities, and is second in the line of succession to the presidency, after the vice-president. This week, the leading Republican candidate for the job, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, failed time after time to scale the mountain. To restore faith in the majesty of the job, we found a photograph from 1953, showing then-Speaker Joe Martin of Massachusetts wielding an extraordinary gavel, hewn from a mighty redwood. It would be hard to find a more literal illustration of Theodore Roosevelt's adage, “speak softly and carry a big stick.” (From historian Ted Widmer.)

**Who Dissed answer: It was Republican Congressman Roscoe Conkling, who was at odds with Roosevelt’s father when president Rutherford B. Hayes appointed the senior Roosevelt to be Collector of Customs of the Port of New York over incumbent Chester Arthur — Conkling’s preferred candidate. Conkling got what he wanted: The Senate rejected Roosevelt Sr.’s nomination. Roosevelt died two months later.

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