Former U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn

Former U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn

Hairdo narcissist John Edwards, who ended up being the cliche John Grisham-novel character he resembled outside the paperback pulp for two campaign cycles in Iowa, is now one more casualty in a parade of family values politicians.

The Edwards cheating episode, full of stature-sucking and biography-diminishing details, such as his purported mad dash for a bathroom in which to hide when confronted by a reporter at a California hotel early one morning after a reported meeting with his mistress and alleged lovechild, provides great evidence of what the United States is sorely missing: more single politicians.

Enough with politics as Christmas-card photos. Ditch the wives, kids and dogs and start living for God and country.

Some of the most effective political advocates have been, believe it or not, single.

One of the top legislators this nation has seen was the late Speaker of the U.S. House Sam Rayburn of Texas, a man who served in that position for 17 years during World War II and after.

He was a bachelor who could be found smoking, drinking moderately and reading Westerns when he wasn’t shepherding through legislation or advising presidents. But he was always on the clock. If a reporter found him in a hotel at 2:40 a.m., Rayburn no doubt would have been smoking a cigarette with his mind on a meeting with John Kennedy or a strategy to bring southern and northern Democrats together — not the couching of lies about bedding a former Manhattan party girl.

Sam Rayburn’s lifestyle sure wasn’t the fluffy stuff of family centered television commercials. But his work, his 48-year career in Congress and his commitment to the nation made him a legend. The most prestigious House Office Building in Washington, D.C. is named after him, and in 1961 he was the only speaker in history to earn a standing ovation.

Here is The New York Times obituary on Rayburn:

He was 30 when first elected to Congress in 1912.

In 1927, Mr. Rayburn married Matze Jones of Valley View, Tex. They separated almost immediately and the marriage was dissolved a year later.

Mr. Rayburn subsequently lived a bachelor’s life but, contrary to some reports, it was not a lonely one. A moderate drinker, he enjoyed parties and accepted many invitations, particularly if the event was to be a small dinner where politics would be the main conversational topic.

It was an almost daily ritual for him to “visit with” a few close friends, as he put it, in a hideaway that he maintained on the ground floor of the Capitol.

Rayburn’s integrity was exemplary. He never took campaign money from lobbyists. He viewed the people of his district and his valued colleagues as his “family.”

And the nation is better for him.

Rayburn would surely get my vote over the current cast of “family men” running for offices in Iowa and across the nation.