POWER SHIFT TESTS THE GOP

Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress on Tuesday for the first time in nearly a decade. The power shift will test the Republican Party’s ability to govern and advance an agenda that party leaders say will focus on job creation and improving the economy.

“We want to be a responsible, conservative and right of center governing majority,” said incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Lingering intra-party disagreements over how to maneuver around a Democratic White House pose new tests for Republicans. “We need to demonstrate an ability to govern,” incoming freshman Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., told ABC’s This Week.

The challenge will be particularly acute in the Senate where filibuster rules, an unpredictable conservative flank and minority party rights will make it difficult to advance major legislation without bipartisan support.

Top Democrats say those divisions will cripple the GOP. “They’re not going to be able to do it,” said Rep. Steve Israel, DN.Y. “They are going to be engaged in this civil war between their far right base and the few moderates left.”

McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, R- Ohio, are trying to steer an agenda that they say will prove to the country that the GOP can be trusted behind the wheel. They also want to overcome a negative perception that the party was the driving force behind the 2013 partial government shutdown and the near default on U.S. debt in recent budget battles. McConnell has made clear: no shutdowns, no defaults in this Congress.

On Tuesday, Boehner is widely expected to be re-elected as speaker offering themselves as alternatives.

The first order of business in the GOP Congress will be a renewed effort to approve the construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which fell just one vote short last November in the Democratic-controlled Senate. With Republicans in control, they are expected to pass it and send it to the president’s desk. The White House has signaled Obama could veto it.