Region's Republicans savor the swearing-in

WASHINGTON - Jon Runyan's broad shoulders barely squeezed into his chair. Mike Fitzpatrick fiddled with his BlackBerry in the back row. Pat Meehan, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited to vote for John A. Boehner, could barely suppress a grin.

The region's Republicans had arrived.

On the first day of the 112th Congress, the Philadelphia area's new and not-so-new representatives exemplified the change of power in Washington.

Runyan, the hulking ex-Eagle from South Jersey, Fitzpatrick from Bucks County, and Meehan from Delaware County - not to mention Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania's new senator - all belong to the party that was swept to power in the House in November by disaffected voters. Republicans now hold their biggest edge in the chamber - 242-193 - since the days of Harry Truman. Of 94 new members sworn in Wednesday, only nine were Democrats.

On the GOP side of the House, children sat two to a chair as members crowded the aisles and back row. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), the first female speaker of the House, surrendered the gavel - a cartoonishly outsize affair - to her successor, the famously weepy Boehner. The Ohio Republican dabbed his eyes with a tissue as the crowd thundered its approval.

To hear Bucks County's congressman tell it, the new majority is on a mission.

"The mandate was clear," said Fitzpatrick, who served a House term before being ousted by Democrat Patrick Murphy in 2006, only to return the favor and unseat Murphy last fall. "The American people want to limit government spending and shrink the size of government."

In the Senate, where Democrats lost ground but still hold a majority, Toomey was sounding collegial, saying he would reach across the aisle. Though an outspoken fiscal conservative, he had recently voiced support for repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays and lesbians in the military, and wrote an opinion piece with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri urging a bipartisan drive to abolish congressional earmarks.

The new House speaker struck a conciliatory tone on his first day as well, lamenting the bruises of the last campaign. "A great deal of scar tissue has built up on both sides of the aisle," said Boehner, a bar owner's son.