Fight begins for control of House GOP

WASHINGTON - The battle to shape the Republican Party's direction after its electoral losses will see its first skirmish in the Capitol on Wednesday in a House leadership fight in which the profile might be low but the symbolism is high.

The House's Republican leaders would dearly like to elevate Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington to lead the House Republican Conference, putting a female face into the pantheon of the white male Republican leaders.

But standing in their way is Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, one of the most conservative members of the House who has lined up some big guns in his quest for the fourth-ranking post in the conference.

The most important of those guns, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the defeated Republican vice-presidential nominee, showed no sign of retreat Tuesday in a letter sent to colleagues endorsing Price.

"In the House of Representatives, we have an obligation and a real opportunity to produce and promote a positive and principled agenda for the American people," Ryan wrote. "Over the past two years, we have offered bold solutions to our fiscal and economic challenges. We must not let up."

The McMorris Rodgers-Price clash could set the tone for the coming Congress. Lawmakers arrived Tuesday for the lame-duck session amid an atmosphere unsettled by Democratic victories. Democrats were giddy as children on the first day of school. Republicans vacillated between notes of contrition and defiance. And the shape of the 113th Congress is only starting to come into focus.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said she would announce Wednesday morning whether she would seek another term in that post or step aside.

But for a party still grappling with the meaning of its losses, the vote by incoming House Republicans on who will lead their conference is gaining outsize importance.

Speaker John Boehner, trying to clear the path for McMorris Rodgers and head off a divisive fight, offered Price the post of chairman of the House Republican leadership. But Price declined.

Instead, he set out to line up the House's most ardent conservatives behind him. In a letter also released Tuesday, the outgoing Republican conference chairman, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, and the governor-elect of Indiana, Rep. Mike Pence, also threw their support behind Price.