Aikshrees Kanduraja

It's got to be someone widely recognizable, someone distinct, and iconic.

So he picks Mitch McConnell.

He's always had super, super loyal staffers.

I mean, I imagine he's, according to his book, The Long Game, he's run out all his enemies and installed all of his friends.

So I was hoping to find Mitch McConnell fans to buy Mitch McConnell paintings.

Another thing I did, I looked up on Etsy, I looked up on the typical places where you would go to buy an oil painting, and I couldn't find any oil paintings of Mitch McConnell.

If I painted five paintings of Mitch McConnell in a week,

I had the only five paintings of Mitch McConnell in existence for sale, right?

After a few tries, he gets one that looks enough like Mitch McConnell.

So he posts a few pictures of his progress, and someone notices the next day.

I was walking through the Senate, and one of his aides kind of came out of the woodwork and was just like, hey, man, these paintings of our boss that you're posting on Instagram are really cool, but could you maybe...

paint him smiling, you know?

I was just like, boom, hell yeah, I can paint him smiling.

I can paint him smiling.

Whoa.

All day long.

Have you ever had a picture in your office of your boss smiling at you?

If you have, you might be living in a country where the name leader is preceded by great or supreme.

I'd like to take this moment to say I am grateful to work here at This American Life, where the company reimburses half the cost of the smiling portrait of Ira that we are forced to hang in our offices.

Pablo delivers his first smiling senator to Mitch McConnell's staffer.