Congratulations, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to you and the members of your new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The gracious humility of your acceptance remarks was a vivid contrast to your predecessor’s ill-mannered comments as she handed over the speaker’s gavel. She clearly does not intend to be held accountable for the disastrous performance of her party in last November’s elections. Though former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., long-winded rudeness is an indication of the challenges you and other responsible members of the 112th Congress will face in the days ahead, your arrival on Capitol Hill is already having a positive effect in Washington. Shortly before you became speaker of the House, the Obama administration announced it is withdrawing its new regulation requiring “end-of-life counseling” for Medicare recipients.

In short, there will be no “death panels.” Then, just hours after you gaveled the new House to order, President Obama’s confrontational spokesman, Robert Gibbs, announced his resignation as White House press secretary. Now the hard work begins.