The 112th Congress has been sworn in and Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio), the former bartender and Congressman from West Chester is now officially the Speaker of the House. The outgoing Speaker claims to be a Catholic, while the brand spanking new Speaker was quick to brandish his credentials as a real one. In his acceptance speech, Boehner quoted Genesis 3:19, which is often quoted by Catholic priests during the imposition of ashes at the beginning of Lent, "remember you are dust, and to the dust you shall return," calling on members of both parties to remember that they are there in a spirit of service, the new Speaker asked that Congress remember that their times in public life are meant to be temporary.

The House is now debating rules that would require some of the highest level of transparency ever known, including making bills available online as soon as they are filed. In a show of the decline of now-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's political capital, 19 Democrats did not vote for her for Speaker, but voted for another member-11 of those votes went to Western North Carolina Congressman-and former Tennessee quarterback-Heath Shuler, one of Pelosi's most vocal opponents inside her own party. Middle Tennessee's Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) was among the Democrats who received an anti-Pelosi protest vote.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senators are now attempting to change the Senate's traditional debating rules so that Republicans cannot filibuster Democratic bills. When Republicans attempted to change the rules merely to allow up or down votes on judicial nominees during the Bush Administration so that judicial nominations couldn't be filibustered, Democrats (rightly, it should be noted) declared that the ability to filibuster in the Senate was a protection for the rights of the minority. Apparently, since the Republicans are the enhanced minority, Democrats now believe that they are not entitled to the same privileges that Senate Democrats have gone to great lengths to defend over the last decade. What is good for me is not good for thee, according to Senate Democrats.