DeLay: Social Security; tax reform; tort reform; cut spending; etc. - The Democrats best friends in D.C. will be conservative Republicans.

"This is going to probably be the most productive two years of our Republican majority," said Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader. "It's not just Social Security and tax reform, it's tort reform, regulatory reform, restraining spending, redesigning the House, redesigning the government."

(As alluded to in a 12-30-04 post, in the House, the two parties are poised for an opening-day fight over a package of rule changes that Democrats and outside watchdog groups say are intended to dilute the power of the House Ethics Committee after it admonished Mr. DeLay three times last year.)

Nine new senators and 41 House freshmen will be sworn in as the 109th Congress opens at noon on Tuesday. . . .

Senate Republicans gained four seats in the November elections, enlarging their majority to 55 to 45 and putting them closer to the 60 votes needed to break filibusters. (The seven new Republican members include a core of fiscal and social conservatives moving across the Rotunda from the House who are strongly against abortion and for tax cuts.)

In the House, Republicans - bolstered by a contentious redistricting in Texas - gained three seats for a new majority of 232 to 202, with one independent who generally votes with the Democrats. Republicans have increased their numbers for two straight elections, a trend House Democrats will try to reverse in the 2006 midterm contests.

In some respects, Mr. DeLay's fellow Republicans may pose a bigger threat to the party's agenda than the Democrats. Now that Mr. Bush has been re-elected, some Republicans have shown a willingness to buck the White House in the fight over the intelligence reform measure. Other Republicans are already balking over proposed Pentagon cuts as a way to reduce the deficit. Still others hope to overcome administration and leadership resistance to allowing cheaper drug imports.

(The New York Times, 01-02-05.)