It's Boehner

The GOP House members have chosen Ohio congressman John Boehner as the new Majority Leader, replacing Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt. Blunt was the early favorite, but faded on fears that he would be an easy target for the Dems.

Pastor Mark Daniels, an Ohio native himself, has this to say about Boehner:

Cincinnati-area Congressman John Boehner was elected House majority leader by his fellow Republicans this afternoon. It's been rightly pointed out that Boehner has accepted campaign contributions from a number of lobbying groups.

But, something that hasn't gotten as much play is that Boehner has always been an implacable foe of earmarks, those appropriations inserted into pieces of legislation that contain unnecessary pork barrel spending. Boehner has been so opposed to earmarks that he has refused to get them for his congressional district, often creating problems for him with fellow Republicans there. He deserves props for his courage and consistency on this issue, I think.

Check out this article of Boehner from 2004.

I also found an interesting reaction from a staffer who works for a Senior Democrat congressman:

Blunt was status quo, we can run against status quo. Shadegg would have been a fresh face, would have gotten rid of ear marks, and would have taken them back to their roots but at the same time would have killed their moderates and helped to put four seats in Pennsylvania, two seats in Connecticut, and two in NJ into more vulnerability. Boehner gives the appearance of reform for GOP vulnerables to run on, provides a new face that can't be demonized by Dems (hard to demonize someone as the "Congressman from Sallie Mae", much easier when the Majority Leader is married to a tobacco lobbyist) and is frankly a better legislator than either Blunt or Shadegg. Watch over the next few months as Pelosi goes after him, she will sound increasingly more shrill, and he will get more done.

If conservatives are pretty happy and Democrats pretty upset about Boehner, then I think the GOP caucus made the right decision.

One piece of advice to Majority Leader Boehner - knock if off with the tan-in-a-can stuff. You don't want to end up looking like John Kerry during the 2004 election.