McConnell Still Top Congressional Republican; House GOP To Vote On Keeping Boehner

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will continue in his official capacity when the 111th Congress begins in January.

In elections for leaders in the new Congress, the Senate Republican Conference voted to keep McConnell. They also re-elected Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) as minority whip and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) as conference chair.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was elected to the no. 5 post, conference vice chair. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) was elected as Republican Policy Committee chair. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) will succeed Ensign as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

"We've assembled a great team which stands ready to protect American taxpayers by cutting spending, paying down the national debt, and moving our nation toward energy independence," McConnell said in a statement. "We are eager to work with our Democrat colleagues to forge bipartisan agreements and implement real legislative accomplishments."

In the House, Republicans hold a forum Wednesday morning ahead of a vote for House minority leader. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), who is seeking to keep his post, agreed earlier this week to a proposal from Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) to hold the debate.

Speaking on MSNBC on Tuesday, Lundgren had said that while Boehner was not entirely at fault for Republican electoral defeats, he should step down. "If you look around the world at any democracy of a legislature such as ours, and they had suffered stunning defeats two years in a row, you would find the people at the top would step down and we would bring in new leadership.... It's the fault of our entire conference and party, but he happened to be the leader. If we are going to be the party of accountability and responsibility, we ought to hold ourselves accountable and responsible."

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) is expected to succeed Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) as House minority whip. Blunt, who became minority whip in 2002, said in a letter to colleagues days after disappointing losses for Republicans this election, "In January 2007, I wrote myself a letter and mailed it to my office. The letter, unopened, sat on my desk until Wednesday... I wrote that it was my intention to spend the next two years holding the Democrats accountable and defining the differences between our parties. I also wrote that, were we not successful in recapturing the majority in 2008, it was my intention to serve only two years as Minority Whip."

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), who was chairman of the Republican Study Committee and one of several Republicans who led the House GOP floor protest on offshore oil drilling during the summer recess, has been endorsed by Boehner as chair of the House Republican Conference.