IT STARTS TODAY – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  In the game of Washington politics, today is the season opener.  The new Congress is sworn in, and meets for the first time.  Republicans are eager, knowing that, with Donald Trump's inauguration in two and a half weeks, they will control the town. 

The enemy is out there, with names like New York, Massachusetts, and California, but they are temporarily defeated and in mass therapy.  Stuff can get done.  From the L.A. Times:

A Republican-controlled Congress opens Tuesday with the most sweeping conservative agenda in decades, providing Donald Trump ample room to gut the Affordable Care Act, slash corporate tax rates and undo Obama-era environmental regulations.

The House is almost certain to reelect Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) as its first order of business, dispensing with the messy political infighting that has hobbled Republicans in the past.

And the Senate will swiftly begin vetting the president-elect’s most controversial Cabinet picks, ready to confirm some when Trump is inaugurated as president on Jan. 20.

Yet Republicans remain at odds on some high-profile issues — such as how aggressively to investigate Russian hacking in the 2016 election — and how to fulfill other big-ticket promises, such as replacing Obamacare.

Despite firm Republican control of both the White House and Congress, the internal disputes have left them without a clear plan yet for Trump’s first 100 days, or an endgame for the two years of the 115th Congress.

Trump’s often shifting views on major issues will test relations with GOP’s leaders on Capitol Hill, and his willingness to skirt ideological rigidity gives incoming Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco an opening to influence and shape the president’s evolving agenda.

COMMENT:  That's a fair way of looking at it.  Control doesn't guarantee either effectiveness or good strategy.  Republicans must now show that they can govern, and that may not always be easy.

The GOP will be working with a president who is unusual, to say the least.  But it had almost the same situation when Ronald Reagan took the oath office.  He was not universally popular within his own party, but he developed a great style in working with members of Congress, both Republican and Democratic.  And the nation moved forward.  Trump must do the same.

January 3,  2016