Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk
Article history
The outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hands the gavel of office to her successor John Boehner. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The Republican John Boehner was elected the new Speaker of the House today, marking a shift to the right in Washington as he replaced the first woman in the post, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
The meeting of the 112th Congress, with the Republicans in control of the House and having slashed the Democratic majority in the Senate, is a long way from the heady days of 2007 when Pelosi was elected Speaker and the Democrats held both the House and the Senate.
With control of the House, the Republicans have a substantial platform from which to harry Barack Obama in the White House. The Republicans hold 242 of the 435 House seats and the Democrats 193 after the November elections, a gain of 63. There are 87 new Republicans and nine Democrats.
Boehner, in his first speech as Speaker, gave a nod towards the Tea Party movement that backed many of the new members. He promised the Republican objective would be to "give government back to the people", ending a lot of the House conventions that he said had made for bad legislation.
Otherwise, his speech was largely free of the antagonistic, partisan politics that can be expected in the months ahead. His relatively subdued tone was in keeping with a day in which members brought in their families to join them in the chamber.
Boehner has established a reputation in recent months for being emotional, given to frequent bouts of tears, and he was moist-eyed again as he wandered among colleagues, Democrats as well as Republicans, acknowledging their greetings. He eventually pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his nose. Read more
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