House Republicans debuted a new line of attack against Democrats on Wednesday, calling the GOP the party of "accountability and trust in government" in the wake of several recent controversies involving the Obama administration.

Armed with new uproars involving the IRS's admission that it had targeted conservative advocacy groups, the release of more emails involving the administration's response to last year's terrorist attack in Benghazi and the Justice Department's having monitored the phone record of AP journalists, the House GOP leadership said that they would emphasize transparency in the coming weeks, and hope to make it a central issue in the 2014 midterm elections.

"The public is beginning to raise questions in their mind as to is this government accountable? We are going to work here in the House to restore the trust in government," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash., added: "What the American people expect from their government is accountability."

The new line of attack comes amid a terrible, five-day stretch for the White House. Republican aides told NBC News that the trifecta of controversies had breathed new life into the GOP conference, which recently had been riven my internal disagreements, especially as most legislative action plays out in the Democratic-held Senate.

Democrats, of course, took issue with Republicans' efforts to seize the mantle of transparency.

"Members of both parties want to exercise the appropriate oversight role of Congress into these matters, but the idea that this Republican leadership has been interested in doing anything to the federal government other than destroying it, would be a thorough rewrite of the last two years," said Drew Hammil, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Republicans would have another opportunity to drive their new message on Wednesday afternoon, when Attorney General Eric Holder appears for a House committee for a general oversight hearing. There, he'll he’ll be peppered with questions about why the Justice Department went after reporter’s phone records. And next Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on the political targeting by the IRS. Aides say also to expect more hearings related to Benghazi throughout the year.

For his part, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, stressed the party would still push the economy as an issue but would also uphold their “responsibility under the Constitution to provide oversight over the Executive Branch."

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, addresses the media following a Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. From left are: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA, Conference Vice Chairman Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-KS, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, Rep. Susan Brooks, R-IN, Conference Chairman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA, and Rep. Tom Price, R-GA.

Published at 4:35 a.m. ET: After their electoral drubbing last November — their second straight in a presidential contest — Republicans have faced a choice. Do they change their policies or their tone?

For now, many top Republicans in Washington seem to have opted for the latter, deciding that a more articulate re-statement of the party's long-held principles will suffice in their effort to attract new voters to the GOP.

"I wouldn't say shift in policy," pollster Jim McLaughlin said of his advice for fellow Republicans. "Republicans have to make adjustments there, but they have to stick to their principles."

McLaughlin's words echo what many Republicans have argued since the election: It's not the party's long-held principles that are the problem, but rather, the way the party's leaders articulate those principles to voters.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., offered a perfect example of current Republican thinking when he delivered a major policy speech that rehashed a number of familiar policies on education, immigration and entitlements under his new "make life work" veneer.

The No. 2 Republican in the House re-framed some of his party's most familiar proposals as an agenda intended to ease the plight of most American families. (The lone new pronouncement was Cantor's endorsement of the thrust of the DREAM Act, a proposal to allow undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children a pathway to citizenship.)

He disputed the notion that his speech was part of a broader effort to soften the GOP's image: "The average American is not thinking about and wondering about where the Republican Party is," Cantor told one questioner.

But the Virginia congressman's speech is representative of an emerging consensus that a more modern restatement of their long-held principles will suffice in seeking to broaden the party's appeal.

And indeed, President Barack Obama's agenda seems poised to stress-test some of the Republican Party's most bedrock policies.

If Republicans can rebuff the president, it could prove the resiliency of their stances. A victory for the president, on the other hand, could tear through the GOP like a buzzsaw. The GOP is arguably facing the most direct challenge in decades to the tenets that have formed the foundation of Republican Party politics for the better part of three decades.

Public opinion shifting
Republicans' decision to hew closely to those long-held principles is not without dissent, however.

"People focus on the 2012 elections, but it's deeper than that," said former Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette, a Republican who leads the moderate "Main Street Partnership."

"It can't just be tone," LaTourette argued. "Because just changing the tone is going to be like putting a lipstick on a pig — it pretties things up, but doesn't really change the fact that it's a pig."

The next four years — the midterm elections in 2014 and the next presidential contest in 2016 — will offer a major test of which school of thought is right.

Obama's second term agenda seems almost directly intended to challenge the GOP on taxes, entitlements, immigration, social issues and foreign policy.

Terminally low taxes, hawkish foreign policy, largely unfettered gun rights and opposition to abortion and gay rights have defined the GOP since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. And as recently as 2004, President George W. Bush's re-election seemed to signify a sweeping affirmation of these central principles.

But Obama already won new revenue during the first installment of the "fiscal cliff" fight, and his forthcoming budget is almost sure to seek more tax increases. The president is demanding an immigration bill and the first major gun law since the 1990s. Obama has also consistently advocated for new gay rights, and public opinion has followed (however slowly). And last month's NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that a majority of Americans support abortion rights — an issue which Democrats used against Republicans to great effect during the election — for the first time in history.

On an even more foundational issue, last November's exit polls revealed a change in tide against Republicans' opposition to new taxes under any circumstances. Almost half of voters — and 70 percent of independents — agreed that income taxes should increase, at a bare minimum, for households earning more than $250,000 per year.

For Republicans, the road map back to victory involves speaking less stridently about some of these issues, and emphasizing certain elements of the GOP platform over others. Virtually all Republicans recoil at the comments last fall about "legitimate rape" by Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, but no mainstream GOP leader has suggested that the party jettison its longstanding opposition to abortion rights. The new strategy might involve sidestepping conversations altogether about abortions in the instances of rape, instead emphasizing Republican policies that might support women's economic mobility.

And already, a new effort led by former Bush political guru Karl Rove has vowed to combat candidates like Akin in primaries and help to nominate more electable Republican candidates. (A separate effort spearheaded by another onetime Bush adviser, Ed Gilliespie, and two Hispanic GOP governors, Suzana Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada, will look to recruit more minority Republican candidates.)

LaTourette, the former congressman, suggested the answer might be simpler. The GOP, he said, is should just get things — something, anything — done.

"There needs to be some sort of reasonable approach to demonstrate that we're all in this together," he said, "a willingness to do the doable and get things done."

Related:

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Social conservatives say they deserve seat at table in retooled GOP

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sought to lead Republicans past their dollars-and-cents fights of the last two years, arguing Tuesday for a more expansive agenda that resonates with a broader scope of Americans.

As the GOP works to redefine itself in the wake of an electoral drubbing last fall, Cantor outlined a series of policies he said Republicans would pursue over the next two years. The agenda includes staples of Republican politics — tax and entitlement reforms, for instance — but also education, immigration and research and development, particularly in the sciences.

Recommended: Obama calls for at least short-term fix with cuts, revenue to avoid sequester

"In Washington, over the past few weeks and months, our attention has been on cliffs, debt ceilings and budgets, on deadlines and negotiations," Cantor said at a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington. "But today, I'd like to focus our attention on what lies beyond these fiscal debates. Over the next two years, the House majority will pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families."

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., speaks to the media following a Republican Conference meeting on Feb. 5, 2013 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The speech fits squarely within the rubric of reinvention sought by the GOP at the advent of President Barack Obama's second term. The Virginia congressman offered generally familiar proposals, couched in the rhetoric of middle class advancement. This "softer" approach to policy-making squares with an emerging Republican consensus that the party does not necessarily need to change its policies so much as frame them in a way that is more relevant to middle class, minority, and women voters.

To that extent, Cantor was flanked at moments during his speech by students from schools in inner-city Washington, a master's student from China looking to stay in America, a nurse from Baltimore looking for a more flexible work schedule, and a former intern of Cantor's who benefited from improved medical technology.

Cantor sought with his speech to put a newer, more accessible face on the Republican Party; whether he'll succeed is a question that might not be answered for two or four more years.

First Read: Cantor's shift on immigration

One policy shift Cantor did announce was in regard to immigration. The No. 2 House Republican embraced the thrust of the so-called DREAM Act, a piece of immigration legislation looking to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children a pathway to citizenship.

"It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home," he said.

Other points of emphasis were familiar to any observers of the contemporary GOP.

On education, Cantor called for increased access to vouchers, more efficient spending per student, cost transparency in college tuition and fuller disclosure to students about the career prospects associated with different degrees.

On immigration, Cantor endorsed easier access to green cards to immigrants with high-level degrees, a reformed guest worker program and stronger employee verification tools.

And in an appeal to middle class workers, Cantor endorsed giving all employees greater flex-time at work and simpler simpler ways to file taxes.

On top of this, Cantor appealed to Republican staples: comprehensive tax reform and reforms to Medicare (including streamlined provider networks, and increased leeway for states to administer their own programs).

The recurring theme, though, for Cantor involved an appeal directed intently toward middle class voters.

"Government policy should aim to strike a balance between what is needed to advance the next generation, what we can afford, what is a federal responsibility and what is necessary to ensure our children are safe, healthy and able to reach their dreams," Cantor said.

Updated 1:53 p.m. - Republicans, confident that they would have the votes to be successful, said they would push ahead with their alternative plan to resolve the "fiscal cliff," even as Senate Democrats said the GOP proposal would never even be allowed a vote in their chamber.

GOP leaders said they intended to follow through with their vote to pass a pair of bills which would preserve tax rates on income less than $1 million and approve new spending cuts in place of the automatic cuts -- many to defense -- set to take effect on Jan. 1. 

"Absent a balanced option from the president, this is our nation's best option," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told reporters on Capitol Hill. "And Senate Democrats should take up both of these measures immediately."

President Barack Obama has promised to veto the legislation; it is virtually dead-on-arrival in the Senate, where Democrats oppose the proposal.

"Until Republicans take up our bill in the House -- the one that passed here -- there's nothing to discuss," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "We're not taking up any of the things they're working on over there now." 

The partisan standoff devolved into protracted gamesmanship that appeared to move Democrats and Republicans no closer to a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff just 12 days before its onset. Much of Thursday's action in Washington, represented in a series of dueling press conferences throughout the day, seemed to have more to do with positioning each party for the possibility of failure than reaching the kind of agreement that has eluded lawmakers for so long. 

"After today, Senate Democrats and the White House are going to have to act on this measure," Boehner said at an afternoon press conference. "If Senate Democrats and the White House refuse to act, they'll be responsible for the largest tax hike in American history." 

With less than 12 days until the tax hikes and spending cuts which compose the "fiscal cliff" will snap into place, Republicans remain locked in a stalemate with Obama over the extent of the expiring tax rates they should extend, as well as how deep of cuts should be made -- and to which programs. 

Republicans' Plan B proposal, on which the House will vote this evening, came after the White House offered a deal in which no taxes would go up on income under $400,000, along with changes as to how Social Security benefits would be allowed to grow in coming years. But the administration views the plan as a non-starter, meaning that today's vote serves little more purpose than to posture the GOP for the final stages of negotiations (or, for the political fallout that would result from going over the fiscal cliff.) 

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., second from right, walks to a Republican strategy session with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012.

"I've done my part," Boehner said about the state of negotiations. "They've done nothing." 

A handful of conservative Republicans, who oppose tax increases in virtually every instance, have said they would vote against their leadership on Plan B, making House Speaker John Boehner's, R-Ohio, task in approving the bill more difficult. Boehner can suffer only 24 defections from fellow Republicans if no Democrats break ranks and support the plan. 

Cantor, on Thursday, confidently predicted the bill would have adequate support when it reaches a final vote, tentatively scheduled for this evening. 

"We're going to have the votes to pass both the permanent tax relief bill as well as the spending reduction bill," he said. 

At the same time, Democrats ridiculed Republicans' strategy as a waste of time given Obama and Senate Democratic leaders' stated opposition to even allowing for consideration of the plan. 

But the speaker said he wasn't convinced his backup proposal really was dead in the Senate. "I'm not convinced at all that when the bill passes the House today, it will die in the Senate," he said. 

The impending Christmas holiday -- along with some congressional leaders' travel to Hawaii this weekend for the funeral of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, D -- means there are few working days left for Republicans to resolve their standoff with Democrats and Obama. 

Reid said that senators would be asked to return to Washington next Thursday, four days before the fiscal cliff. 

Cantor said that the plan -- as of now -- was for lawmakers to stay in Washington following tonight's Plan B vote.

"We do not intend to send members home after this vote," he said. "We want to stay here, we want to avoid the fiscal cliff from happening." 

Boehner also said the House would stay in Washington past tonight's vote, though he would not say for how long.

Surrogates for President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney projected outward confidence on Sunday in each candidate's ability to win on Election Day.

As the final NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll showed a close race nationally between the two candidates, their top supporters squabbled over who held the upper hand in critical battleground states.

"I'm very confident that, two days out from Election Day, the president's going to be re-elected on Tuesday night," said David Plouffe, a White House adviser who managed the president's 2008 campaign, on "Meet the Press."

There are seven states, worth 89 electoral votes, considered true "toss-up" states on NBC News' battleground map: Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Florida and New Hampshire. Other competitive states include Nevada, which has leaned slightly for Obama in recent polls, and North Carolina, which has tended toward Romney in many recent polls.

"All these states right now, we think the president's in a good position to win," Plouffe said.

Both Obama and Romney spent Saturday barnstorming these battleground states in hope of shoring up their base and shaking loose prized undecided voters in the final hours of the campaign. But their professed confidence belied a much more competitive battle for the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency, especially as an uncertain finale loomed over the 2012 campaign.

The Romney campaign said its Sunday schedule — which took the former Massachusetts governor to Pennsylvania and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to Minnesota — both states which Republicans have only contested as of late — was a sign of surging national momentum. But Democrats castigated those trips as a sign of desperation, as Romney scrambled for new pathways to 270.

One of the most hotly contested battleground states includes Virginia, which Obama has put into play in 2008 and again in 2012. It also has one of the earliest poll closing times in the nation on Tuesday, and could offer political observers an early indicator of the trend lines in the election.

"We're going to win this state, and I think we're going to win it a lot bigger than people are predicting," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican who represents a Richmond-area district.

He added: "I see here on the ground, there is a lot of enthusiasm for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan."

But political bravado is a well-worn tradition for the closing days of the elections, and Plouffe was quick to seize upon Romney's plans to spend some of his final campaign stops in Virginia and Florida, two states he might not be able to afford losing come Tuesday night.

"We think Gov. Romney's playing defense," the White House aide said of Virginia and Florida. "I'd rather be the president today than Gov. Romney in terms of those two states."

Plouffe also characterized the Obama campaign's position in Iowa and Ohio — two footholds of the president's Midwestern "firewall" — as "commanding," though he cautioned the campaign must execute its get-out-the-vote efforts on Tuesday if it is to secure those states.

Follow the final weekend of the campaign with NBC Politics:

• NBC/WSJ poll: Obama 48, Romney 47
• Clinton joins Obama for rally capping whirlwind day
• Uncertain finale looms amid weekend campaign blitz
• Romney implores Colorado for 'one last push'
• Biden zings Romney in Colorado
• Ryan travels to Pennsylvania, trying to put state in play
• Obama plays up 'trust' in battleground Ohio
• Obama aide explains 'voting is best revenge' comment
• Ryan: 'We believe in change and hope'
• Romney strikes optimistic tone as final weekend opens
• Polls: Obama stays ahead in Ohio, deadlocked with Romney in Fla.
• GOP's chances at Senate imperiled by self-inflicted wounds

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., speaks to reporters following a weekly strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 8, 2012.

The distinction between legislating and politicking will blur this summer on Capitol Hill, as House Republicans lay out a laundry list of priorities largely intended to set the stage for this fall’s election.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., outlined the GOP's priorities through August in a memo to fellow Republican lawmakers on Friday.

The agenda calls for votes on some items of substance -- reforms of the U.S. Postal Service and Food and Drug Administration  among them -- but seems largely intended to shape Republicans' messaging efforts when they stand for re-election.

"In line with our underlying principles for legislation, the House will move forward this summer with a number of proposals aimed at addressing job creation and the economy, reducing spending, and shrinking the size of the federal government while protecting and expanding liberty," Cantor wrote. "Above all, we must continue to focus on economic growth and small business -- producing results that get Americans back to work."

But the most consequential votes taken by the House are set for this summer, and very few of the proposals likely to pass through the House are expected to become law. The period between late June and the yearly August recess will be dominated by pillars of the GOP's re-election effort: energy, taxes, and regulations.

Republicans will push legislation to expand energy exploration after Father's Day, just as the driving season kicks into high gear for motorists and gas prices are set to explode.

Read Cantor's memorandum on the majority leader's website

In July, Republicans will embark on a number of efforts, many spearheaded by the freshmen lawmakers first elected in 2010, to eliminate regulations -- an effort, Cantor said, to spur job creation and assist small business owners.

And before breaking for recess, Cantor wrote that the House would vote "on legislation preventing the largest tax increase in history." While the GOP is working on comprehensive tax reform, Cantor said that such an intiative would "take time," necessitating an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts past Dec. 31, when a previous two-year extension of those tax cuts is set to expire.

But the agenda outlined by the Republicans is starkly different than the "to-do" list being pushed by President Barack Obama as the campaign season hits its stride.

That list includes efforts to expand tax credits for small business hiring, proposals to spur clean energy manufacturing, and initiatives for employers who keep jobs that could be outsourced in the United States. Obama has also pushed for a veterans-hiring campaign, and expanded refinancing for Americans with troubled mortgages.

The two sides' agendas shape the contours of the fall's battle for control of Congress. Republicans are looking to emphasize their efforts to rein in spending and cut regulatory rules, in part to appease a conservative base that was frustrated toward the GOP's role in last year's spending fights. While Obama and Democrats point to a "do-nothing" Congress, accusing it of doing nothing tangible to spur job growth.

Underscoring the record-low unpopularity of Congress, Obama has taken strides, too, in tying Republican rival Mitt Romney to GOP lawmakers.

NBC-Marist polls: Dems have slight edge in three key Senate races

"After a long and spirited primary, Republicans in Congress have found a nominee for president who has promised to rubber-stamp this agenda if he gets the chance," he told cheering supporters in during his official campaign launch earlier this month.

And on Thursday in Iowa, Obama noted the electorate's frustration toward Congress's inaction.

"It's always easier to be cynical. It's always easier to say nothing can change, especially after we've gone through such a tough time," he said.

"And despite all the changes we've made, despite all the good things we've done, things are still tough. And so, the other side, they are going to try and play on that sense that, well, things aren't perfect, Congress is still arguing, the politics is still polarized. But you're the antidote to that."

Case-in-point was the standoff on Thursday that saw no resolution between Democrats and Republicans on separate bills to extend low student low rates, something which both Obama and Romney have endorsed.

The Senate rejected the House bill to extend the lower interest rates on student loans because it contained a veritable poison pill for Democrats: a provision to pay for the cost of the bill by axing a part of the president's health care reform law. The Democratic version, which leaned on eliminating a tax break for the wealthy, also failed to secure the necessary votes for passage.

Cantor made no mention of that impasse in his memo to colleagues on Friday. Barring action by Congress, student loan rates will double on July 1.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) emphasized his independence from a super PAC founded by former aides after that group invested on behalf of Sen. Richard Lugar in Tuesday's Indiana primary.

Cantor sought to distance himself from the intraparty battle between Lugar and state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who appears poised to unseat the veteran senator in today's primary.

"First of all I have not gotten involved in that race, and this is an outside group that I have no control over," Cantor told NBC News.

Politico reported last monththat the Young Guns Network, the Super PAC and 501(c)3 spearheaded by former aides to Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spent $100,000 on mailers in support of Lugar.

The ad buy upset many conservative Republicans who had looked to Mourdock as a more palatable alternative to the relatively more moderate Lugar.

Cantor declined to actively endorse Lugar on Tuesday saying, “I think our party is a party of ideas and we're out there in an active debate over the direction of this country. But one thing that brings us all together is that this government has grown entirely too big and we have an impending deficit and debt situation that we have got to address.”

A GOP campaign operative called Cantor’s move “wise” and said any further connection to Lugar would “hurt him with the activist base of the party.”

The unemployment dropped slightly to 8.2 percent today, as the economy added 120,000 jobs.

That jobs figure, though, fell short of the expectation of about 200,000 jobs.

NOTE: By the way, there will be no First Thoughts today. We're taking a small break on this Good Friday, but we will be updating the blog throughout the day as news warrants.

*** UPDATE *** Mitt Romney responds to the jobs report, calling it "weak and very troubling."

“This is a weak and very troubling jobs report that shows the employment market remains stagnant," Romney said in a statement released by his campaign. "Millions of Americans are paying a high price for President Obama's economic policies, and more and more people are growing so discouraged that they are dropping out of the labor force altogether. It is increasingly clear the Obama economy is not working and that after three years in office the President's excuses have run out.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** NBC's Frank Thorp reports House Speaker John Boehner pins slowed job creation on the president's policies.

"Today's report shows that families and small businesses are still struggling to get by because of President Obama's failed economic policies," Boehner said in a statement.

*** UPDATE 3 *** Majority Leader Eric Cantor, though, didn't name President Obama in his statement. Instead, he talks about the JOBS Act Cantor pushed and Obama signed.

"The monthly jobless numbers are just a quick snapshot of the economy, so while it is welcome news that around one hundred thousand jobs were created last month, there's more to the picture. The level of growth we are seeing isn't enough to make a difference for the millions of Americans still out of work or families facing high gas prices and the uncertainty of a lagging economy. Job growth happens when small businessmen and women in this country have the ability to take risks, invest capital and start hiring new workers. We want to make sure they have every opportunity to do so. The JOBS Act is now law because Republicans and Democrats put our differences aside and joined together to deliver results for job creators in this country. We can do more."

Updated 11:22 a.m. — Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Sunday, saying he is the candidate best suited to handle the issue of the economy.

Cantor, the House Majority Leader, announced his support on "Meet the Press," just two days before the primary on Tuesday in Virginia. 

"What I have seen is a very hard-fought primary. And we have seen now that the central issue about the campaign now is the economy," Cantor told moderator David Gregory. "I just think there's one candidate in the case who can do that, and it's Mitt Romney."

Cantor is the highest-ranking Republian member of Congress to make an endorsement in the primary. Moreover, Cantor has emerged as a national political figurehead for conservatives on Capitol Hill; he's generally seen as the informal leader of the faction of anti-establishment conservatives to have been elected in 2010. To that end, he is one of three House Republicans considered the party's "Young Guns," along with Reps. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.), neither of whom have endorsed in the presidential race.

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters traveling with Romney on Sunday that Cantor called the former Massachusetts governor on Wednesday to inform him of the endorsement. 

The Virginia lawmaker's support adds to a collection of endorsements Romney has collected from elected officials. Eighty-one Republican members of Congress have voiced public support for Romney, according to Roll Call's count of endorsements. Just 11 members of Congress have endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, by comparison. Romney has additionally won endorsements from other national Republican figures like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Fehrnstrom suggested Cantor's support stems from an interest in riding Romney's coattails — coattails which, by implication, Fehrnstrom meant that Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum wouldn't have for Republicans downballot. 

"I gotta believe in the back of his mind he’s also thinking about maintaining a Republican majority in the house and elected republicans are looking for someone who has coattails, not concrete shoes," the Romney adviser said of Cantor.

Some of the other members of the House Republican leadership team have made endorsements; the No. 3 member of the GOP, Conference Chairman and Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, had endorsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Republican Policy Committee Chairman and Georgia Rep. Tom Price has endorsed Newt Gingrich. 

Two members of the House GOP leadership have endorsed Romney, including Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican conference vice chairwoman, and Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, the chairman of the House Republican Leadership. 

The top House Republican, Speaker John Boehner, has doggedly refused to make an endorsement in the Republican primary. A political spokesman for the speaker confirmed Saturday that Boehner won't endorse before the primary on Tuesday in his native Ohio, arguably the crown jewel of the Super Tuesday contests.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has also declined, to date, to make an endorsement in the Republican race. 

Cantor's endorsement comes at a point in Romney's campaign at which he's railed against opponent Rick Santorum's extensive experience in Congress. Romney has made his lack of time spent in Washington a cornerstone of his campaign. 

The former Massachusetts governor has also broken, though, from congressional Republicans at points throughout the campaign. Most notably, Romney came out in opposition to a deal GOP leaders on Capitol Hill had struck with President Obama to raise the nation's debt ceiling last August after maintaining his silence for much of the debate.

Pete Marovich / Getty Images

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks during his weekly on-camera news conference on Capitol Hill February 2, 2012 in Washington, DC.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Thursday that he enjoys a positive working relationship with his top GOP deputy, denying a report that tensions between him and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) had gotten so bad the two had been forced to call a "truce."

Boehner said that he and Cantor hadn't had a disagreement in over a year, though the speaker made veiled reference to behind-the-scenes staff feuds famous on Capitol Hill.

"We are teammates and we have been teammates, and I could tell you that I don't think there's been a disagreement between Eric and I over the course of the last year," Boehner said, "As you're clearly aware there's been a couple of staff rumbles from time to time but, you know, that's to be expected when you're doing big things."

Boehner and Cantor -- and, for that matter, the rest of the GOP leadership team -- are famous for staying in their own lanes, running separate political and press operations. Cantor is seen as the de-facto voice, though, for the more conservative, insurgent crop of House freshmen, who have made forging agreements or finding agreement difficult, at times, for the speaker.

Details of those tensions were contained Thursday in an article published in Politico, which announced that Boehner and Cantor's offices had met in January to call an effective truce between their operations.

"I talked to the whole leadership team this morning, along with the staff, the senior leaders, about our need to continue to work together for our team," Boehner told reporters. "And so, I feel good about where we are, and happy that we've got the team that we have."

House Republicans are pre-emptively hitting President Obama and Senate Democrats ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union address by highlighting the fact that Democrats won't have sumbitted their own budget for consideration by 1,000 days.

The House GOP released a video that "previews" the speech, while calling out Democrats for the ignominious milestone, which will coincidentally land on the day Obama delivers his address.

The video, titled "Coming Soon: 1000 Days Without a Budget", is made to look like a movie preview, and features photos of Obama looking tired and speaking with Senate Democrats while negative economic data flashes on the screen and ominous action-movie-style music plays in the background.

The preview makes a point to specifically call out Senate Democrats as a whole, and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) specifically, and refers to the vice president as "Sheriff Joe Biden", a reference to a 2009 speech where Obama referred to him as "The Sheriff": "If you're misusing taxpayer money, you'll have to answer to him," he said in the speech to Department of Transportation employees.

And while the video claims to be previewing Obama's speech tomorrow to a joint session of Congress, it also gives an early look into how Republicans plan to attack Democrats and the President going into a contentious election year.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told reporters on Monday that he hopes to hear Obama admit that his policies, in regards to the economy, aren't working. "I certainly would like to hear from him that there's a recognition the policies in place have made this economy more lackluster," Cantor said.

Cantor says the GOP majority in the House will focus on oversight this year, calling hearings to address examples of when "the administration has failed to provide the leadership that I think most people expect."  Cantor mentioned Solyndra as a prime example of the administration's political miscues that they expect to go after in the coming year, but would not elaborate on any additional examples of what they may decide to investigate.

Republicans have warned that they plan to use the 2012 election as "a referendum on the President's policies regarding the economy," as Speaker Boehner told reporters at the House GOP Conference Retreat in Baltimore last week.  Boehner said he expects "every member in every committee" to look into Obama's policies so that they "understand the devastating impact of these policies on our economy."

But the lack of a Democratic budget from the Senate appears to be a major point that Republicans plan to drill down in the coming weeks, especially now that the White House has announced they are delaying their own budget by a week.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions (R-AL), co-authored a post on the National Review’s website today saying they are "disappointed" that Democrats have not offered a budget plan in the past 1,000 days.

"If the president wishes to begin a genuine dialogue with the American people in tomorrow's State of the Union address, then he must hold his own party accountable for its dogged refusal to produce a plan to prevent this crisis and lift this cloud of uncertainty from the economy," the two lawmakers wrote.

BALTIMORE, MD -- The second-ranking House Republican suggested Friday he could step into the presidential race and make an endorsement before a nominee is decided.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (VA), during a briefing at the House GOP's retreat this weekend in Baltimore, said that he prefers a speedy conclusion to the presidential primary.

"The more we can coalesce around a single nominee the more straightforward the choice will be for the for American people," Cantor said. "I dont know if i'll endorse before it's over. I'm leaving the option open."

Like House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Cantor has remained officially neutral throughout the primary process. Mitt Romney has collected a number of endorsements, though, from high-profile Republicans on Capitol Hill. Newt Gingrich has also won some support, namely from fellow Georgians and a few lawmakers who had served on Capitol Hill during his speakership.

House GOP Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling had previously been the highest-ranking member of the Republican leadership to make an endorsement; Hensarling backed a fellow Texan, Gov. Rick Perry. (Perry ended his campaign this week.)

Cantor suggested that the GOP might be anxious to coordinate its message more closely with a nominee once the race has been decided.

"Ed Gillespie told our conference that the House should be in close coordination with the nominee one that has been decided," referring to the GOP powerbroker, Gillespie, a cofounder of American Crossroads.

Cantor also noted, though, that he hadn't spoken to Romney in "a while."