I am ending my very long day watching Ken Burns America: The Congress.

One of the most hilarious stories: Speaker of the House, Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, had a tremendous wicked wit.

Reed once remarked of two colleagues that they could never open their mouth’s without subtracting from the psalm of human knowledge.

And he defined a statesman as a successful politician who is dead.

Upon seeing his portrait, painted by John Singer Sargent, Congressman Reed said, “All my enemies are revenged.”

When asked whether he would attend the funeral of a political enemy, The Speaker said, “No, but I approve of it.”