Behind the free-flowing wine, the K Street soirées and the massive new majorities, Republican leaders are facing a daunting reality: They are right where they left off.

Republican leaders wanted a quick and clean, drama-free lame duck session to kick off their new majority, but they find themselves heading toward a showdown over how to fund the government.


They promised to avoid legislative cliffs, but Republicans are risking one as they consider a short-term spending bill to pressure Barack Obama on immigration reform.

“I think it would be enormous for setting the tone,” Sen.-elect James Lankford (R-Okla.) said of Obama’s plan to take executive action on immigration. “Because immediately, it sets down the marker: he doesn’t want to work on legislation. That’s how we actually get real stuff done. We actually work.”

Top Republicans worry the tone will only get worse.

Already, Republicans are even divided on whether they should hold a legislative retreat together next year. A tentative plan that is being floated by GOP leaders is for both House and Senate Republicans to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania, with the two chambers overlapping for one day. Senate leaders aren’t sold on the idea.

The mood of the GOP is well encapsulated by John Boehner: Cautiously optimistic. He stood in front of his Republican colleagues Thursday morning in the Capitol basement, and while his colleagues sipped on coffee and ate Chick-Fil-A, Boehner began boasting of his party’s massive electoral romp. Since 2010, they’ve gained 70 seats in the House and they have the largest majority since 1928. Not to mention, they finally have control of the Senate.

But he also offered some stiff warnings. He said his wife Debbie reminded him of a verse from the Gospel of Luke the morning after Election Day. “To whom much is given, of him much will be required,” the Ohio Republican said, recounting the line.

“We have the chance to do great things for the American people in the months ahead,” Boehner said, according to a source present. “You and I know what those things are – I don’t need to give you a laundry list. But what is certain is that those things can only be accomplished if we stick together as a team and recognize our common purpose. When that happens, it changes everything.”

M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

That unity is already being put to a test.

But things are much worse for Democrats. Six members of Harry Reid’s party vote to delay his election as minority leader. A close ally of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocked a change to a decades-old rule that would’ve allowed Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to vote in a leadership election from her home. She is wheelchair bound, pregnant and cannot fly. Dozens of seats out of the majority, Democrats are scrounging for committee assignments. Pelosi is engaged in a power struggle with her membership, as she tries to boost Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) in a race to serve as ranking member on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, upending the longstanding tradition of seniority. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) likened Democrats to the “dolls that you push down and they jump right back up.

“You know the clowns,” she said. “You hit it with a bat and it comes back up. We’re jumping back up.”

“We’re licking our wounds, period,” said Rep. Charlie Rangel, a Democrat who has represented New York City in Congress since 1971. “We’re a unified minority, whatever the hell that is worth.”

Another House Democrat put it more bluntly.

“The mood is much more unsettled and dissatisfied than the surface mood would suggest,” the lawmaker said.

The contrast between Republicans and Democrats is more pronounced than ever.

Pelosi has described the election as “not a wave,” while Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, who chaired the campaign committee, reminded reporters that the party won seats from “Maine to American Samoa.” A GOP leadership team that once lacked in women now has five.

”Hi, my name is Mimi Walters, and I’m 52 and I’m a freshman,” the newest female member of leadership said, as she introduced herself to reporters this week.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, which spent millions of dollars to elect GOP members of the House, is hosting a welcome reception for new lawmakers at the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican hangout across from the Capitol South Metro stop. Several GOP senators, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held victory lunches. Sen.-elect Tom Cotton was feted by roughly 30 K Streeters and his fundraising team Wednesday night at a local watering hole.

Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is ahead in a runoff against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), bounded onto the House floor Thursday and proclaimed, “22 days left to be precise, but who is counting!” While Boehner set up a vote for Cassidy to tout his support for the Keystone XL pipeline, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin was working the phones to raise money for Landrieu. Landrieu is likely to pass her own legislation to help build the pipeline next week.

Democrats, on the other hand, are in retreat, hardly reaching out to donors and skipping the post-electoral party circuit. Several Democratic lobbyists who write five- and six-figure checks to their party told POLITICO that they want answers before they open their checkbooks again.

If you listen to Republicans, the goals for the new Republican majority are mild. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who has provoked endless fights over the last few years, said, “If we simply do what we said we would do and lead with a bold positive agenda, pro-jobs, pro-growth, defending the constitutional rights of the citizenry it will make a serious and real difference for the country. And I am optimistic and hopeful that Republicans will do just that.”

Lankford, who was elected to the House in 2010, said having more of his lower-chamber colleagues in the Senate will the chamber legislate. After a call from President Obama on the night he was elected, Lankford has had just one email from the White House: a note from the legislative liaison.

“That was ok,” he said, with his wife by his side. “I was two years in the House before I ever knew who the legislative liaison was in my office. I didn’t even know their name. I was three years here before I ever met them. The hard work of let’s negotiate things together wasn’t there. So we’re going to have to restart that. That’s my frustration. The president doesn’t want to legislate – he wants to do executive orders. That means when he has a super majority in the House and Senate, he’ll legislate. When it’s real work,” he said, before his voice trailed off.

K Street has but one concern: that parties start legislating again.

“At the end of the day, if Republicans and Democrats don’t find a way to get some bipartisan solutions to some issues that are important to improving the economy, 2016 is around the corner and I think both parties will pay the price,” said Steve Caldeira, head of the International Franchise Association.

Burgess Everett contributed to this story.