From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The new era on Capitol Hill.

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

House Republicans are snorting

political fire on a mission to dismantle the Obama agenda, repeal health care reform, and cut

federal spending. With the biggest GOP majority since the era of Harry Truman, they plan to change

the rules in hopes of changing the way Congress does business. If Senate Democrats stymie their

efforts, will they be blamed for gridlock in 2012?

Or will the new Congress inspired by the Tea Party overreach?

Will they meet the fate of previous reformers and be absorbed by an institution devoted to business as usual?

On reporter's notebook later on, an innocent man is exonerated after 30 years in a Texas prison.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Marman Alney, back with To The Point. Tomorrow's Republican takeover to Congress will be heavy with symbols appealing to Tea Party stalwarts and other enemies of big government.

We'll hear about the strategy, the agenda, and the prospects for Democrats to fight back.

On reporter's notebook, evidence held since 1979 has helped clear a Texas

man who spent 30 years in prison for rape, robbery, and abduction. Crimes the DNA analysis

shows he did not commit. First is news update. Pakistan is officially mourning the death of

Solomon Tassir, the governor of the Punjab province, assassinated today by one of his own guards.

The killing could affect efforts to keep Pakistan's coalition government from collapsing.

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