There is no perfect Speaker of the House

As Republicans vote today to decide who will lead the lower body for the foreseeable future, it will become clear that some choices will be too hot, some choices will be too cold and none will be exactly what all the members want.   

As somebody who worked for six and a half years as the spokesman for the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history, let me tell you that perfection in politics is unattainable.  

But as Mick Jagger might put, if you don’t always get what you want, you might get what you need. 

And what congressional Republicans need right now is a Speaker of the House who can be an honest broker among the various factions within the majority, who has endless patience to listen to concerns of members who may or may not be a part of any of the factions, who is creative enough to be able to solve problems that always vex a legislative body and who has enough experience to be a credible and successful negotiator, both within the Conference and the House, and with the president and especially the Senate.

The most successful Speakers of the House tend to focus more on the team than themselves. They work with their committee chairmen and their leadership group to reach outcomes that reflect the desires of their entire caucus. They try hard to reach consensus with their members before they make decisions for their conference. They tend not to put their personal policy goals ahead of those of their members.  

The best Speakers have geographic diversity in their leadership. For many years, House Democrats drew a clear line from Boston to Austin. Speakers of the House and majority leaders were either from Texas — Sam Rayburn, Jim Wright, Carl Albert (he was from Oklahoma but close enough) or Massachusetts (John McCormack, Tip O’Neill) — which was an effort to keep an ideological balance to a politically diverse Democratic Caucus. The long-standing team of liberal Californian Nancy Pelosi and the more moderate Marylander Steny Hoyer was consistent with that tradition of trying to achieve balance.

When Republicans were successful at maintaining some leadership stability, they too had geographic and ideological balance. Bob Michel’s (Ill.) whips were Trent Lott (Miss.), Dick Cheney (Wyo.) and Newt Gingrich (Ga.). Denny Hastert’s (Ill.) leadership allies for the bulk of his time as Speaker were Dick Armey (Texas) and Tom DeLay (Texas). Republicans ran into trouble when they didn’t have that ideological or geographic balance. Eric Cantor (Va.) and Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who served under John Boehner (Ohio), never were really trusted by conservatives and thus couldn’t sell his agenda to the tea party faction that came into power in 2010. 

McCarthy did have ideological balance with his top lieutenant in Steve Scalise (La.), but for reasons that have never been made clear to me, their relationship became so toxic that they could never find a way to work together.  

And that is another trait of successful Speakers. They find a way to work with their leadership team, no matter how hard it is to find common ground. Congress is full of very ambitious and driven people, at the member and staff level, and to rise to a leadership position takes even more ambition and drive. Developing trust in those circumstances is incredibly difficult, but is also essential to success. They say that the definition of Irish Alzheimer’s is a person who forgets everything but their grudges. To be successful as a Speaker of the House, you must put your grudges aside to be able to deliver for your caucus and for the country.  

The best Speakers put aside their egos to get the job done, and don’t care who gets the credit for achieving victory, as long as victory is achieved. The best Speakers aren’t necessarily well-known to the voters but have credibility with their members as honest dealmakers who keep their word and keep the interests of country ahead of their own.

I don’t know who the Republicans will choose to be their next Speaker, but I hope they understand that they can’t make the perfect the enemy of the good. There is no perfect Speaker, just one good enough to get the job done.

Feehery, a partner at EFB Advocacy, blogs at thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).