On the other hand, Iran's influential parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, implicated the same people -- the Guardian Council -- of siding with one candidate.

CNN: Iran media: Council rejects claims of voting irregularities

MPs must seize the initiative and hand extensive new powers to select committees, Commons Speaker John Bercow has said.

BBC: Commons Speaker calls for sweeping new committee powers

He was the speaker of parliament and Khomeini's right-hand man in the 1980s, president of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and is now chairman of the powerful Expediency Council, which resolves disputes between the clerical establishment and parliament.

FORBES: Millionaire Mullahs

Perhaps the more significant, and less noted, event that forced Romney to switch his protective coloring was the resignation in September 2004 of House Speaker Tom Finneran, a staunch social conservative who ruled the Massachusetts House with an iron hand.

CNN: Will Romney lurch to the center?

When someone had the floor, the speaker's name alternated with an on-screen explanation of their connection to the discussion at hand.

NPR: Putting TV on the Radio