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The DNC chairwoman has to “stand up for the president’s record, and it’s pretty bad,” Romney said.

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The freshman Republican doesn’t see the GOP front-runner as a conservative.

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Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said this week that he sees Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney not as a conservative on the right, but as someone who is “center to center left.”

“Let’s be very honest,” West told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “He did govern a blue state in Massachusetts, so I think that how he presented himself as a New England Republican is probably different from what a person would see as a Republican or definitely a conservative when you come down into the Bible Belt, the Southeast and maybe even the Midwest.”

Still, West left open the possibility that Romney would govern more from the right should he win the GOP nomination and defeat President Obama.

“The guy, he governed a certain way in Massachusetts,” West said. “And I think that everyone believes in redemption. So you can come back and recreate yourself, and how he would govern the United States of America would probably be a lot different.”

Romney won the Iowa GOP caucuses by just eight votes over Rick Santorum, and is expected to easily win the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.

Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is preparing a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that calls for a formal explanation of President Obama’s decision to make several recess appoints, even though congressional Republicans say Congress is not in recess.

“I’m planning to write to the attorney general to ask if the president asked for a new Justice Department opinion prior to making this appointment and whether the attorney general agrees with it,” Grassley said Wednesday.

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The Obama administration on Wednesday officially recess-appointed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) based on a legal opinion from White House counsel that Congress — despite contrary arguments from Republicans — is in recess.

House and Senate Republicans quickly criticized the recess appointment by saying both chambers have been meeting in brief pro forma sessions every three days, a move that has kept Congress out of recess and should have prevented a recess appointment.

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President Obama signed several bills into law on Tuesday, including one that authorizes intelligence operations for fiscal 2012, and another increasing civil penalties for violations of oil and gas pipeline safety rules.

Both the intelligence authorization bill, H.R. 1892, and the pipeline safety bill, H.R. 2845, were approved by Congress in December.

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The conservative Club for Growth will target House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) for the next two weeks with ads attacking his support for earmarks, aid to Wall Street and bills that increased the U.S. debt ceiling.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Club will spend $500,000 on the television spots, which will brand Upton as a "liberal" member of Congress. The ads will run though Upton is not facing a primary opponent this year.

The newspaper quoted Club for Growth President Chris Chocola as saying, "Michigan Republican[s] can do better."

Upton was one of 12 members of the congressional supercommittee that failed to come up with a plan for reducing the deficit over the next decade.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) this week called President Obama “a divider, not a uniter,” and said he is trying to promote envy among lower-income Americans who are struggling to find work so he can expand the government.

“He’s using class warfare, he’s dividing America,” Gohmert said in an interview with the Daily Caller. “He’s trying to say, if you don’t have a job, then you need to look around and be jealous of people who have money, who have a job, and [you should] want what they have.”

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Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) on Tuesday formally closed the first session of the 112th, Congress just minutes before noon, and began the second session at noon.

Today's noon meeting was required under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that Congress must meet at least once each year, at noon on the third day of January.

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Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), whose endorsement in Tuesday's Iowa caucus is increasingly seen as something that could put any of the Republican presidential contenders over the top, again declined to endorse any candidate Monday morning.

"At this point, I haven't made a decision," King said on CNN. "It would have been really nice if I could have woken up this morning and I would have had that epiphany and I'd have been able to make that endorsement. I said it has to be a conviction, and unless and until a conviction comes, I'm not going to be able to do that."

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Two Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed legislation that would cut off federal aid to states that don't toughen up their child abuse reporting requirements, the latest reaction to the child sex abuse case at Penn State University that cost legendary football coach Joe Paterno his job.

Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) on Wednesday introduced the Speak Up to Protect Every Abused Kid Act, which would require all states to pass and enforce laws requiring adults to report child abuse directly to the authorities. States that fail to pass and enforce these laws would not receive federal funding through the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, the current federal law relating to child abuse prevention.

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