The job of the Speaker is to preside over the House of Representatives, both in the US and Texas. At least that's what it implies in the Constitution. As we will note as we start looking at the internal structure of Congress the Speaker is selected by the members of the House of Representatives after they have selected their party leaders, and the party with the most members generally gets to vote their leader in.
This means that in addition to presiding over the House, he or she is also responsible for organizing their party. This can pose challenges, especially now since the Republican Party - in the House in both Congress and the Texas Legislature - contains a Tea Party caucus that wants to pull the party further to the right, more so than the Speaker on either level is interested in.
I want you to look at either the Congress or the Texas Legislature and determine how the Speaker on that level is handling trying to keep all elements of the party together. This is good way to get to understand how leadership operates (or fails to) on the national or state level.
This might be a helpful read: King of the Hill: House Leadership.
