In House, a band of new rebels

After only four years on Capitol Hill, the Indiana lawmaker was just elected to chair the influential Republican Study Committee. With about 100 members (complete headcounts are never released), the RSC is "the majority of the majority," Pence says, citing Speaker Dennis Hastert's formula that most Republicans must support a bill before it can move to the floor. He expects to have a say in what moves in the new Congress, and is signaling that Bush cannot count on a rubber stamp from House conservatives.

"House conservatives must rally support in Congress and the country for President Bush's agenda where it conforms to the ideals of limited government," he wrote last month. But they must also "undo" much of the 2001 campaign finance reform act, roll back the entitlement elements of the Medicare prescription-drug law, and reverse the federal role in education advanced in the No Child Left Behind Act, the president's signature domestic program, he urged. Unlike previous RSC chairs, Pence resigned his party role as deputy whip to avoid "serving two masters."

Rep. Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona is another potential breakaway - on the issue of fiscal policy. Formerly with a think tank and lobbying group, Mr. Flake in his two terms has voted against a bigger federal role in education, the creation of a Homeland Security Department, farm subsidies, and most annual appropriations bills. Recently, he has attacked pork projects so relentlessly that GOP Rep. John Peterson summoned groundhog celebrity Punxsutawney Phil to Capitol Hill this week to defend his $100,000 earmark for a weather museum in Punxsutawney, Pa. - and invited Flake to attend. (He did.) The earmark was one of $25 billion in pork spending in the $322 billion omnibus spending measure signed by Bush this week.

GOP moderates, who played a big role reining in the Bush agenda on tax cuts and energy policy in the Senate, are also gearing up for a more vigorous role in the 109th Congress. The Republican Main Street Partnership counts 12 senators and at least 50 House members. They are planning a push to support fiscal restraint and stem-cell research that could put them at odds with Bush.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R) of Illinois, a cochair of the moderate Tuesday Group, says "The agenda I have is to reorient the work of the Congress to more accurately reflect the problems facing people in the suburbs." He also plans to push Republicans to get back to their Teddy Roosevelt roots in the environmental movement. As a student in Britain, he worked as an aide in the House of Commons and saw "Soviet-style" party loyalty up close. "The overwhelming loyalty of a member of Congress should be not to a party platform but to their state and the people in it," says the former Navy intelligence officer, still active as a reservist.

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