The loss takes away some of Biden's power in Washington but on Wednesday he congratulated McCarthy and said he would work across the aisle to deliver results.Even though the expected "red wave" of House Republicans never reached shore, conservatives are sticking to their agenda.In the Los Angeles mayoral contest, Edison projected that Democrat Karen Bass, a top progressive in Congress, had defeated Rick Caruso, a billionaire former Republican who ran on a platform of reducing crime and homelessness in the city.With such a narrow majority, McCarthy was working to get commitments from nearly every member of his unruly Republican members, having failed in just such an endeavor during a 2015 bid.Freedom Caucus members, about four dozen in all, could hold the keys to his winning the speakership and the viability of his speakership writ large."