John Boehner (R-OH) was elected to the House Majority Leader post vacated by the scandal-plagued Tom DeLay (R-TX) as Republicans issued a “cry of concern” over “voter unease about corruption and partisan excesses”, according to the New York Times. Despite the victory of Boehner’s campaign of change over the status quo, the Washington Post reports that, “Boehner, who has extensive links to lobbyists, hardly represents a radical break from the past.” Boehner was “an active member of the lobbying-governing culture” in Washington during Republican rule and “is unlikely to take House Republicans in a notably different direction than his predecessors when it comes to the big issues facing Congress this year, like tax cuts, spending restraint and the war in Iraq.” One of Boehner’s strengths was that he appealed to both status quo – assuring GOP members that he would not overreact to the Abramoff scandal – and change, siding with the rock hard conservatives allied with John Shadegg.