No. of Recommendations: 2
Depends on the techniques the coalition builder uses to obtain consensus. And if you are afraid to not reach a consensus, your opponents will exploit that.
I think this is inconsistent the nature of the position of the Speaker.
We don't have a parliamentary system of government. The Speaker isn't like a Prime Minister, which is also elected by the members of the lower legislative house. Once elected by the Parliament, the Speaker has powers and authority that do not depend on cobbling together a majority of legislators on that issue. That's subject to check, of course - there can always be a vote of no confidence to remove the PM from their office by the legislators. But generally, the PM does not need consensus among their legislators to take action.
The Speaker, by contrast, lacks that formal power. If they don't build a majority in the legislature on any particular issue, then they cannot act. There's no structural delegation of authority or decision-making to the Speaker except on procedural matters. If the Speaker doesn't have a consensus, then neither they nor their party has any power. The Speaker is only as powerful in negotiations as their members are willing to give them that power - through actual consensus, or empowering the Speaker to make choices that don't have consensus support by willing to "go along" with the majority. The inability to get your Members to support a common position is fatal to the exercise of power by your party.
That kind of job typically requires a different skill set than other legislative roles (like, say, chair of the Judiciary Committee). You have to be able to get your Congresscritters to vote together at the end of the day. If you can't, you will lose every negotiation you enter.
