The inspiration for this cartoon came from Neil Lisst, who suggested that I parody the painting "American Gothic" by Grant Wood, using Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer. It's one of those paintings that gets parodied a lot. In fact, I'm looking at my Spongebob Squarepants calender right now, and the exact same parody is the cover cartoon. I thought it needed a twist, so I drew Nancy and Steny competing for control of the pitchfork. When I drew the pencil sketch, it was about 3 a.m., and I was very sleepy. As I started to ink the caption, I realized that I'd penciled "Nan and Stempy", as in Ren and Stempy, the tv cartoon. I thought it was funny and started to leave it that way, but I'm a fan of both Nancy and Steny, so I changed it back. However, the next time I draw Steny, the temptation may prove irresistible. In case you've been living on Mars, Nancy and Steny work for you in our House of Representatives.