Signs That Change Has Arrived at the Capitol

Official Change: GOP takes control of House in 112th Congress
Yesterday, shortly after noon, the Republican Party officially swept into power in the House of Representatives, led by 85 incoming GOP freshmen, as part of a net gain of 63 seats in the chamber. The House convened with swearing in of all 435 members, followed by a roll-call vote for Speaker of the House. John Boehner of Ohio was expected to take control of the Speaker's gavel, held by Nancy Pelosi of California for the past four years. Pelosi was still bidding to be the #1 Democrat and Speaker ...

Dennis Miller revives "Pelosi Galore' for House Speaker's last day Video
"Pelosi Galore", a play on "Pussy Galore" villian  of the James Bond flick,  was revived by conservative comedian, Dennis Miller,  on his Radio Show to  commemorate former Speaker of the House  Nancy Pelosi's much heralded departure. While the roster of good guys and bad guys in Dennis Miller's 'Mansquito' continues to grow, there is one -- announced today -- who is running chills up and down the spines of people of America. Her name? Pelosi Galore . As explained on toda...

CBS: House Republicans 'Begin Their Assault On Health Care Reform'
On Thursday's CBS Early Show, congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes derided Republican efforts to Repeal ObamaCare: "On Friday, they begin their assault on Health Care reform, with a vote to Repeal the law scheduled for next week." Cordes noted how Repeal "will hit a wall in the Senate," observing: "That legislative reality will force both sides to work together on some issues, something Speaker Boehner promised to Democrats." However, moments later she tout...

CHANGE: Democrats Defection From Pelosi Is Historic. With 19 Democrats withholding support from
CHANGE: Democrats’ Defection From Pelosi Is Historic. “With 19 Democrats withholding support from Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker on Wednesday, it represented the largest defection from a party’s speaker nominee in nearly a century. The resistance in the Democratic Party to back now-former Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the ceremonial first vote of the 112th Congress registered higher than at any point since 1913, according to data from the Congressional Research Service.”...

Boehner: CBO "Entitled to their Opinion"
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. (Credit: AP) House Majority Leader John Boehner said today that the Congressional Budget Office is "entitled to their own opinion" - a striking statement in light of the deference usually shown information from the nonpartisan CBO from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Boehner was objecting to a preliminary CBO fin...

Republicans take control of the House
The results of the mid-term election became a reality for Democrats yesterday as Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, and more than 90 new members were seated. John Boehner (R-OH) defeated Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the election for Speaker. In fact, 19 members of her own Caucus voted for someone else (11 voted for Heath Shuler), voted present or did not vote at all; the most members of a Caucus to vote against their party’s nominee since 1923. The power exchange wasn̵...

'Birther' arrested during Constitution reading
A woman was arrested in the House gallery Thursday after interrupting a reading of the Constitution by yelling out her belief that President Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States. When Frank Rep. Pallone (D-N.J.) read the part of Article II, Section 1 mandating that only a "natural-born citizen" may be president, the woman, seated in the front row of the public gallery, screamed "Except Obama, except Obama. Help us Jesus." An officer removed her fr...

Geithner Urges Congress to Raise Debt Limit
Like this Story? Share it: Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner speaks during a hearing of the Congressional Oversight Panel on Capitol Hill Dec. 16, 2010, in Washington. (Getty Images) (AP) WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned congressional leaders Thursday that the government could reach its borrowing limit by spring and failure to raise it could affect millions of American jobs. The government will reach the limit between March 31 and May 16, Geithner said in a lett...

Boehner: Spending cuts must accompany debt limit
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner says any increase in the nation’s Debt Limit must include steps to cut federal spending. The Ohio Republican says the country cannot default on its Debt, but neither can it continue to borrow recklessly. His statement comes after the Obama Administration notified lawmakers that the government will reach the current Debt Limit of $14.3 Trillion this spring. The Debt Limit sets a ceiling on the government’s borrowing authority. Boehner...

A Day Later, House Swears-in DeFazio
A rather bizarre scene unfolded Thursday morning in the Capitol as the House of Representatives interrupted its live quorum call to swear-in Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore. DeFazio was nowhere to be found Wednesday when the House came to order for the 112th Congress. Multiple calls, emails and a visit to his office failed to yield any explanation as to why he was absent. Now that DeFazio has been sworn-in, the House is now at full membership with 435 members. It was an uncommon move when House Speake...

Boehner: Spending cuts must accompany debt limit
House Speaker John Boehner says any increase in the nation's Debt Limit must include steps to cut federal spending. The Ohio Republican says the country cannot default on its Debt, but neither can it continue to borrow recklessly. His statement comes after the Obama Administration notified lawmakers that the government will reach the current Debt Limit of $14.3 Trillion this spring. The Debt Limit sets a ceiling on the government's borrowing authority. Boehner says in his statement that it's up ...

Could John Boehner be a Great Speaker?
I have long been Bullish on the man who is now Speaker of the House.  Perhaps, it’s that John Boehner and I grew up not far from one another, he in the Working Class Cincinnati suburb of Reading, I in the more affluent enclave Wyoming just west of the Republican leader’s hometown. Cincinnati folk have always struck me as hard-working, decent Americans, largely respectful of their peers and generally treating people from different backgrounds with dignity.  It is no wonder that th...

Nancy Pelosi once again makes history
Via WaPo’s The Fix blog : With 19 Democrats withholding support from Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker on Wednesday, it represented the largest defection from a party’s speaker nominee in nearly a century. The resistance in the Democratic Party to back now-former Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the ceremonial first vote of the 112th Congress registered higher than at any point since 1913, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. That year, which happens to be the last year fo...

Portraying Boehner
(CNN) - It was a moment on the House floor Wednesday that instantly made for a powerful photograph - newly installed House Speaker John Boehner clearly weeping as Democrat Nancy Pelosi gets ready to hand the gavel over. Interestingly however, only two of the major, national papers featured this memorable and unique photograph in their Thursday editions, and they both happen to share one thing in common - conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch's NewsCorp owns both the New Yo...

Boehner: Spending cuts must accompany debt limit (AP)
WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner says any increase in the nation's Debt Limit must include steps to cut federal spending. The Ohio Republican says the country cannot default on its Debt, but neither can it continue to borrow recklessly. His statement comes after the Obama Administration notified lawmakers that the government will reach the current Debt Limit of $14.3 Trillion this spring. The Debt Limit sets a ceiling on the government's borrowing authority. Boehner says in his st...

Bob, You Ignorant Slut.
From Newsbusters Woodward: John Boehner Is No Phenomenon Like Obama Appearing on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe,” Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward dismissed the significance of the accession of Rep. John Boehner to the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives, saying that President Obama’s inauguration dwarfed Boehner’s. [snip] Read the rest and watch the video here. Of course the two events were not the same. Boehner isn’t pretending to be a god....

Three-Fifths Of A Newspaper
It's sad enough that Times editors believe it's "a theatrical production of unusual pomposity" that the incoming Republican Congress require "that every bill cite its basis in the Constitution," as they wrote in a Wednesday editorial. But they didn't stop there. Showing the originality of a rap artist skimming through the Rhino music catalog, in search of a 70's hit off which to lift an eight-bar hook, the Times reached into the liberal playbook and rather clumsily interjected the Race Card int...

Congressional Black Caucus Sworn In Rep Allan West (R-The Real Deal) Steals The Show
Star power! (WaPo) — The ceremonial swearing-in of the Congressional Black Caucus Wednesday morning delivered another sign of the changing times in Capitol Hill: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s appearance was less electric to that of freshman black Republican Rep. Allen West. Indeed, Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Keynote Speaker, drew warm applause as she saluted the caucus’ incoming chairman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), and sought to rouse her Troops for the forthcoming battle...

Lessons for Boehner from Pelosi, Gingrich and Rayburn
What history may know as the “Boehner Era” began yesterday. In what must have been the most anticipated and widely covered House transition in recent memory, John Boehner mounted the rostrum for the first time as the 61st Speaker of the House of Representatives. He got off to a good start. Boehner will not be remembered for his oratorical flourishes. The contrast between Boehner’s brief address and the one to which outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred in her farewell remark...

Democrat to challenge Rep. McIntyre from the left
A North Carolina Democratic Activist is set to challenge Rep. Mike Mcintyre (D-N.C.) from the left in 2012. Citing McIntyre's Centrist voting record and opposition to the healthcare law, Democrat Del Pietro announced the primary challenge Wednesday.  "Democrats are just furious with McIntyre and I really think this is going to be his last term," said Pietro, who accused McIntyre of abandoning the core principles of his party. "A lot of Democrats in this state are furious with the Blue Dogs in...

America Recoils in Horror as Dem Campaign Chief Says Making Pelosi House Speaker Again is Their Goal
You know, because Pelosi’s so wildly popular among American voters…no, wait?… (The Hill)- House Democrats’ goal is to make Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) the Speaker of the House again, their campaign chairman said Wednesday evening. Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), set his goal as nothing short of winning back control of the House in the 2012 Elections. “We’re all trying to win it back,” Israel s...

Congress to Tackle Healthcare, Filibuster Rules
On Wednesday, congressional observers were treated to a spectacle which used to be rare—a changeover in power at the House of Representatives. Both the House and the Senate swore in new members, and the new 242-seat Republican majority in the House handily elected Ohio Representative John Boehner to become Speaker of the House. In between raucous cheers and some campaign-style Rhetoric from both sides, now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi handed Boehner the gavel and watched him give h...

Democratic Party ID Drops to Lowest in 22 Years
In 2010, 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, down five percentage points from just two years ago and tied for the lowest annual average Gallup has measured in the last 22 years. While Democrats still outnumber Republicans by two points, the percentage identifying as Independents increased to 38%, on the high end of what Gallup has measured in the last two decades. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and a...

Obama challenges Republicans on US debt
President Barack Obama, seen here in 2010. Newly empowered US Republicans f... Pie chart showing composition of the new US House of Representatives. Newly... Newly empowered US Republicans faced stiff early challenges Thursday as President Barack Obama pressed them to raise the US Debt Limit and his Democratic Senate allies vowed to defend his policies. One day after Republicans took over the House of Representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally asked lawmakers to let the US go...

Obama challenges Republicans on US debt
Newly empowered US Republicans faced stiff early challenges Thursday as President Barack Obama pressed them to raise the US Debt Limit and his Democratic Senate allies vowed to defend his policies. One day after Republicans took over the House of Representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally asked lawmakers to let the US government to borrow more money, the opening shot in a political war over the giant US Debt. Geithner warned in a letter to senior members of Congress that failu...