Antonio Villaraigosa, 45, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, has two of the three basic ingredients of a good Assembly speaker -- street smarts and political acumen. But while a quick study and charismatic, he lacks the parliamentary savvy the first-tier speakers employed in moments of crisis, and this fault may come back to haunt him during his brief tenure.

That is, of course, no fault of his own: California voters in 1990 approved Proposition 140, which among other things limited Assembly members to three, two-year terms. Villaraigosa was elected in 1994; he will be forced to leave the Assembly by 2000. That means whatever legacy he will leave has speaker will have to be developed during the next 24 months, a virtual blink of the eye compared with Brown's nearly 15 years.

Villaraigosa himself recognized this, noting on the very day he was formally selected that he would not have been elevated to the position -- which under Brown was the state's second-highest political post after the governor -- were it not for term limits.

"In another era, I would be a back bencher," he said with engaging modesty. Even his most fervent supporters are forced to agree.

Curtailing the speakership, indeed, was one of the principal goals of the Republican authors of Proposition 140.

Until Jesse Unruh, that master empire builder and machine politician, took over the speakership, the position was largely ceremonial, a virtual rubber stamp for the decisions of the heads of the Assembly's great committees. But Unruh changed the fundamental nature of the speakership, and McCarthy and Brown followed his example, punishing enemies, rewarding friends and cracking the parliamentary whip to exact change.

But Villaraigosa, unlike his Democratic predecessors, will find it tougher to wield the whip. He doesn't have years of political IOUs from his membership to call upon; he attained the position through the sufferance of a narrow majority and he will be forced to rule more through cajolery and persuasion than through force. Effective speakers must be capable of punishing, instantly, wayward members of their flock -- this is an unwritten law of Capitol life to which speakers and the rank-and-file have traditionally paid homage. But how can a transient speaker wield such clout when many of his own members, thirsting for power on their own, will be in the Assembly after he's gone?

The power of the speakership traditionally has been intertwined with the political longevity of the membership. When that longevity is cut short, so is the speaker's power.

The first post-Brown Democratic speaker, Villaraigosa's predecessor, was Cruz Bustamante of Fresno. He served only for a year.

How long will Villaraigosa stay in the saddle?

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