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What's the criteria? What exactly is the measure for a Speaker of the House? If your party is in the Presidency then rubber stamp their agenda...if your party is not in the Presidency then block the other guys agenda (or try to)? Also, like the Presidency, the Speakership has changed radically over the past several decades. Back in Sam Rayburn's time, the Speaker was far less powerful (the reigns rested with the committee chairmen).
I would have to think that ones preference for a "good Speaker" is even more party affiliation based then ones choice for "good President" which often has some more objective measurements. At the end of the day, it's the Speakers job to advance the agenda of their party, not much room for "mavericking". In that light, Gingrich really would be among the best as would Champ Clark.
The nomination of Rayburn and O'Neill seems to be based solely on length of service more than any particular accomplishment. Of those two, I would choose Rayburn as he was masterful in bringing both sides of his party together, while forging a working relationship with the Republicans to get things done. Not sure I can forgive him for annointing LBJ, but all of the Speakers tend to have some blemishes, lol. I do have a deep respect for Tip O'Neill as a fellow BC grad and a man who fought voraciously for what he believed in, but I don't think he was the "best" Speaker, at least not by criteria I would assume are being used.
It would take a lot of particularly focused reading
to ascertain this. Moreover, some of the strategic
nuances, especially pre-modern are likely not easily
identified.
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Tip O'Neill
