Will GOP Freshmen Cooperate or Confront Leaders?

For freshmen GOP congressmen, the overriding question in their relationship with the House leadership is: To cooperate or not to cooperate? How that question gets answered should go a long way toward determining what the 112th Congress can accomplish, Politico reports.

“I don’t have a problem with disagreeing and voicing that with a leader if I truly disagree,” Rep.-elect Steve Southerland, R-Fla., tells the news service. “I won’t do it just for the sake of it, and I find there are elements that want me to go to Washington, D.C., and disagree with leadership on every issue, just for the sake of disagreeing with it. That’s just not acceptable.”

Some tea partyers may be willing to compromise so that they can advance elements of their conservative agenda through a divided government.