Giants take control with six-run fifth inning - MLB.com

Giants' bats lead way to Game 1 win | MLB.com: News To learn about our efforts to improve the accessibility and usability of our website, please visit our Accessibility Information page.Skip to section navigation or Skip to main content Below is an advertisement.MLB.com Fan ForumSearchGoTop Searches:Game 1LeeLincecum#masthead .mlb_season_status_container {left:280px; top:18px;width:314px;height:54px;background:url(/images/masthead/y2010/ps/ps_header_tex_sf_gm1_date.png) 0 0 no-repeat;}#masthead .mlb_season_status_container {background-image:url(/images/masthead/y2010/ps/ps_header_tex_sf_gm1_date.png);}#masthead .mlb_season_status_container {background-image:url(/images/masthead/y2010/ps/ps_header_tex_sf_gm1_pre.png);}#masthead .mlb_season_status_container {background-image:url(/images/masthead/y2010/ps/ps_header_tex_sf_gm1_live.png);}#masthead .mlb_season_status_container {background-image:url(/images/masthead/y2010/ps/ps_header_tex_sf_gm2_date.png);}*html #masthead .mlb_season_status_container {behavior: url(/scripts/fix_png_bg.htc)}#masthead .sponsor_container {position:absolute;top:30px;left:600px;width:126px;height:32px;}MLB Sites American LeagueAL EastBaltimoreBostonNY YankeesTampa BayTorontoAL CentralChi White SoxClevelandDetroitKansas CityMinnesotaAL WestLA AngelsOaklandSeattleTexasNational LeagueNL EastAtlantaFloridaNY MetsPhiladelphiaWashingtonNL CentralChi CubsCincinnatiHoustonMilwaukeePittsburghSt. LouisNL WestArizonaColoradoLA DodgersSan DiegoSan FranciscoScoreboardStandingsIn this Section: Divisional Wild Card Spring Training 2009 Final Standings 2008 Final Standings 2007 Final Standings 2006 Final Standings 2005 Final Standings 2004 Final Standings 2003 Final Standings 2002 Final Standings 2001 Final Standings ScheduleIn this Section: 2010 Postseason 2010 Team-by-Team Schedule 2010 Regular Season Important Dates National Broadcasts 3-Day Glance 2011 Regular Season StatsIn this Section: Sortable Player Stats League Leaders Postseason Top Rookies Tracker Batter vs. Pitcher Sortable Team Stats Winter Leagues Historical PlayersIn this Section: Player Search Sprint Postseason Mashups Postseason Players Transactions Mobile Player Alerts Baseball Cards MLB Players Association NewsIn this Section: News Homepage Intel Pulse of the Postseason 2010 This Year in Baseball Awards 2010 Events Probable Pitchers Game Notes Opinion Photo Galleries News Archive History 2010 All-Star Game U.S. Army's When Opportunity Calls Captain Morgan's First Pitch MLB.com Extras Minor League Affiliates Entertainment Noticias en español VideoIn this Section: Watch MLB.TV Postseason.TV (U.S. and Canada) Postseason.TV Demo MLB.TV Postseason (International) Listen to At Bat with Audio Alternative Audio FAQs MLB.com Support Forum MLB.TV Download Center Video Highlights MLB Network MLB.com/Downloads Baseball's Best Moments Podcasts Dove Journey to Comfort MLB Productions GetGreat.com TicketsIn this Section: Postseason Tickets StubHub.com Postseason Ticket Reservations General Ticket Information Mobile Tickets MobileIn this Section: Mobile Home At Bat 2010 MLB.com on your iPhone & iPod Touch MLB.com on your Apple iPad MLB.com on Your BlackBerry Mobile Premium Team Alerts w/ video Team TXT: On Demand updates Manage Services - Mobile Dashboard Gameday Audio Mobile Web Mobile FAQ ShopIn this Section: MLB.com Gift Card Hall of Fame Minor Leagues Photo Store Books & DVDs Home & Office Outlet Baseball Cards Memorabilia Collectibles Kids Women's Men's Caps Jerseys Shop Homepage AuctionIn this Section: Baseball Cards Baseballs Bases Bats Caps Experiences Gloves Home Plates Jerseys Lineup Cards Miscellaneous On-Deck Circles Photos Pitching Rubbers Publications Pins FantasyIn this Section: Fantasy Homepage World Series Scoreboard Challenge Postseason Survivor MLB.com Final At Bat Challenge Postseason Trivia MLB.com 2010 Fantasy Baseball Yahoo! 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It wasn't the pitchers duel everyone expected.

Quite the opposite, actually. After Texas scored in each of the game's first two frames, the Giants stormed back with six runs in the fifth inning to break it open, and added three more in the eighth before eventually winning, 11-7. The two teams' run total of 18 is the highest this postseason, eclipsing the 13 scored by the Rangers and Yankees in Game 4 of the ALCS.

Even after the six-run frame, the Rangers weren't ready to call it a night. Texas put up two runs in the sixth inning on two-out hits from Mitch Moreland, who lined one off Tim Lincecum's leg for a single, and David Murphy to make the score 8-4. After Murphy's hit, Lincecum yielded to Santiago Casilla, who ended the threat with a strikeout of Elvis Andrus.

The Giants weren't finished either. San Francisco tacked on three final insurance runs in the eighth inning. An RBI double to left off the bat of Travis Ishikawa got things started before the Giants got RBI singles from Sanchez and Nate Schierholz. Sanchez's RBI was his third of the contest.

San Francisco's monster fifth inning got really moving with back-to-back two-out hits from Cody Ross and Aubrey Huff, which chased Lee from the game. Juan Uribe then promptly greeted reliever Darren O'Day with a three-run blast to left.

Sanchez kicked off the scoring in the fifth inning with his third double of the game. With that two-bagger, Sanchez became the first player in World Series history to double in his first three at-bats in the Fall Classic.

It was on Sanchez's second double of the game in the third that helped his team get on the board initially. Sanchez's RBI in the third helped the Giants to capitalize on a Michael Young error at third base and a rare hit batsman from Lee.

Buster Posey followed Sanchez with another line-drive single to center to tie the game temporarily at 2.

This all turned around what appeared to be a rocky start by the Giants and Lincecum. The Freak committed a mental mistake in the first inning that set him up for a potential disaster, but he narrowly avoided big trouble.

With one out and men on the corners, the Rangers' Nelson Cruz hit a soft grounder down the third-base line, where Lincecum fielded it and trapped Young between third base and home. But instead of forcing Young into a rundown, Lincecum simply chased Young back to third base, which was unoccupied.

That gave the Rangers bases loaded with one out instead of two men on and two outs. But the next batter, Ian Kinsler, grounded into a double play on the first pitch to spare San Francisco from a big inning.

Lee helped his team increase its lead in the second frame, doubling to the left-field gap. On the ensuing play, Bengie Molina scored on an Andrus sacrifice fly to put the Rangers up, 2-0, until the Giants came back to tie it and eventually take the lead.

Bailey Stephens is a reporter for MLB.com. Reporter Anthony DiComo also contributed to this story. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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Lopez could be key to getting Hamilton
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Apple Taps Multi-Touch in Motorola Patent Lawsuits - PC World

Apple's patent lawsuit against Motorola is just another thread in a rather complicated litigation web, but it's also unique for busting out multi-touch, a hallmark feature of modern smartphones.

In total, Apple is wielding six patents across two lawsuits against Motorola, as detailed on Patently Apple. The lawsuit is a counter-attack against Motorola, which in October claimed that Apple infringes upon 20 of its patents, so 26 patents are actually in play.

But the two patents that raised my non-lawyer eyebrows are the following:

Ellipse Fitting for Multi-Touch Surfaces: "Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device."

Multipoint Touchscreen: "A touch panel having a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations in the plane of the touch panel and to produce distinct signals representative of the location of the touches on the plane of the touch panel for each of the multiple touches is disclosed."

You don't have to be a master of legal jargon to see that both patents involve touching a screen with multiple fingers at the same time. Apple has never used these patents for lawsuits before, and from what I can tell, Apple's lawsuits against other smartphone manufacturers, such as HTC and Nokia, don't specifically target multi-touch.

The closest Apple has come in the past is with "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics," applied against both HTC and Nokia. This was once regarded as Apple's key multi-touch patent, but as Engadget's Nilay Patel points out in January 2009, there's really nothing multi-touch about it. The patent simply covers the way an iPhone can tell if you want to scroll up and down only, or side-to-side as well, based on the angle your finger hits the screen.

This seems kind of crazy now, but there was a time when other smartphones didn't use multi-touch. After Palm broke the mold with the Pre, and didn't get sued, Android followed, and multi-touch is now a standard smartphone feature. According to one rumor, Google had a gentleman's agreement with Apple not to use multi-touch in Android, as part of a fragile partnership between the two companies. Apple and Google are now bitter smartphone rivals, so the agreement has presumably fallen apart.

Apple won't attack Google directly in court, so for now Motorola's taking the blame for allegedly using one of the iPhone's most important features. The implications would appear to be huge, but as with all the other patent lawsuits in play, this one's not going to be resolved anytime soon.

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WikiLeaks reveals the stark reality of Iraq - The Guardian

Winston Churchill once said: "When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise." It is common practice in conflicts that governments ignore and cover up potential war crimes committed by their troops, which otherwise could reduce support for the war both on the ground and at home.

Therefore, the recent release of classified documents by WikiLeaks is not a reckless endangerment of troops as advocated by the American, Australian and British governments, but a necessity to ensure justice and morality is upheld and reinforce our position as protectors of the Iraqi people against violence and oppression (See no evil: secret files show how US ignored Iraq torture, 23 October). There is no stronger incentive for a shift towards extremism than witnessing alleged abuses first-hand, which then remain unpunished.

Yes, Iraqi militants will use the release to try and rally support. However, with so many potential cases of human rights abuses revealed, this is an opportunity for governments to take action against perpetrators, which would demonstrate to everyone that we are there to help the Iraqi people and are committed to treating all crimes – whether carried out by our own troops or by the enemy – with the severity and disdain they deserve.

Dhiraj Joti

Victoria, Australia

•?The revelations of the scale of torture and related abuses carried out by the Iraqi army and police should do more than cause us to ponder the state of the prohibition of torture in Iraq, they should also force us to confront the fact that neither the US nor UK authorities seem to see this as anything other than an inconvenience. Reliance on the strength of Iraqi military and policing authorities is the backbone of the policy by which US and UK governments can progressively disengage from Iraq – detainees in US and UK custody are regularly being transferred to Iraqi custody, and the WikiLeaks documents are a stark indication of what these detainees will face once transferred.  

Earlier this month, the European court of human rights' decision in Al-Saadoon and Mufdhi v the United Kingdom became final. The court ruled that transferring two Iraqis held by the British army to Iraqi custody breached their rights to be free from torture. The case sends an important message to all states carrying out military action in Iraq and elsewhere: if you are detaining people, not only must you ensure that the treatment accords with applicable human rights standards, you cannot transfer the individuals to the care or authority of the local authorities unless it is clear that they do not face a real risk of torture and/or other prohibited ill-treatment.

Not only do UK and US authorities have an obligation not to hand over detainees to Iraqi custody where there is a real risk of torture, they also have the obligation to do all in their power to stop the abuses, including by investigating cases that come to their attention and taking all appropriate steps to ensure prosecutions.

Carla Ferstman

Director, Redress

•?The news that Iraqi prisoners, including women, were subjected to torture and rape by Iraqi guards while in US custody is old news in Iraq. This is what prompted Dr Nawal al-Samaraie, the former minister for women's affairs, to resign her post in February 2009. Al Jazeera publicised her findings while the western media ignored her.

Tahrir Abdul Samad Numan

Orpington, Kent

•?Many thanks to WikiLeaks and the Guardian for your work on these Iraq documents, the final bloodstained nail in the coffin of the Iraq War Party. Yes, we invaded Iraq so we could make it safe for democracy. By setting up a new police force and army that could use rubber hoses, acid and electric drills on "suspects". But this time it's OK – it's in the cause of freedom. I guess the Iraqi village had to be destroyed in order to save it. The only justification (and I mean credible not believable) for the invasion made by its cheerleaders was that Saddam was a tyrant who tortured his people. Now we find out that we also gave the green light for the basement torturers to work their magic. Thank you, Tony and George. The Argentinian generals would be proud of you. And just as an aside, where are you now David Aaronovitch and Christopher Hitchens when we need you to justify this latest little indiscretion? It's not just the US occupation authorities who should stand in the dock after this. These noxious cheerleaders for the invasion, with their vaporous and corrosive criticism of anyone who disagreed with their boneheaded ends-means logic, should have to explain themselves too.

Jon Moran

Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

•?There seems to be a misrepresent–ation of the role of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange and the overall hacking movement. If we focus on what the newspapers are reporting, we would have to believe that there is an individual out there who is a genius in organisation and direction, solely responsible for what WikiLeaks is achieving, a man the Pentagon has learned to fear. On the contrary, Assange is part of a much larger movement. WikiLeaks is a project in which hundreds of anonymous hackers participate; not surprisingly, the many documents they have are stored in many different locations of the blogosphere. If anything were to happen to Assange, the movement will remain very active indeed – after all, the whole project is characterised by the co-operative labour of many people. Despite the "personality cult" the media promote, the reality is very different: there are many Julian Assanges in this world.   

David J Lobina

London

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App Makers Take Interest in Android - New York Times

One software developer, James Englert, 26, had just released his first application for Android, Google’s operating system for cellphones. When asked, he tossed out an estimate for his take from sales of the app, a simple program that shows train schedules: “$1 to $2 per day.”

The room erupted with laughter. “That’s pretty good money,” he protested over the clamor.

The others could relate to Mr. Englert’s situation because writing Android software is not yet a ticket to financial success. Even as Android sales surge — Google says it is now activating around 200,000 phones a day — the market for Android apps still seems anemic compared with that for Apple and its thriving App Store.

Experts and developers say that is in part because the Android Market, the dominant store for Android apps, has some clunky features that can be annoying to phone owners eager to make a quick purchase. For starters, Android uses Google Checkout rather than an online payment system that more people are familiar with, like PayPal. As a result, many Android developers make their apps available free and rely on mobile advertisements to cover the cost.

“It’s not the best impulse-buy environment,” said Matt Hall, co-founder of a developer outfit called Larva Labs that makes games for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry devices. “It’s hard to think of an application that you would sit there and put your credit card information in for.”

But that tide is starting to turn as Android’s popularity continues to swell and Google takes steps to smooth out some of the wrinkles. For example, the Android Market recently began showing app prices in a user’s local currency, rather than that of the developer.

“We’re still seeing the 1.0 version of the ecosystem,” said Andy Rubin, vice president for engineering at Google and a primary architect behind Android.

Mr. Rubin said there were 270,000 developers writing software for Android, and the number of programs available for download in the Android Market has swelled to more than 100,000, a threefold increase since March.

Developers can feel the shift in momentum. “I used to tell people I wrote software for Android, and they’d look at me like I had three heads,” said Michael Novak, who handles Android development at Medialets, a mobile advertising software company, and helps organize the monthly New York Android Software Developers Meetup. “That wasn’t even a year ago. Now everyone knows what it is.”

Perhaps the biggest point of friction for Android is the same thing that led to its success.

Because Google makes its software available free to a range of phone manufacturers, there are dozens of different Android-compatible devices on the market, each with different screen sizes, memory capacities, processor speeds and graphics capabilities. An app that works beautifully on, say, a Motorola Droid might suffer from glitches on a phone made by HTC. IPhone developers, meanwhile, need to worry about only a few devices: iPhones, iPods and iPads.

When Rovio, the Finnish software development company behind the popular iPhone game Angry Birds, decided to release a version for Android, the company spent months testing the game on a variety of devices to make sure it was up to par.

“It’s so fragmented,” said Peter Vesterbacka, a developer at the company. “It’s a lot more challenging than developing for one device, like the iPhone.”

In the end, he said, it was worth the trouble. The game was downloaded more than three million times in the first week. But the company, which charges 99 cents for the iPhone version and has made millions of dollars that way, chose to give away the Android version and include ads. This is in part because paid apps on the Android Market are available in only 32 countries, versus 90 for the Apple App Store, and Rovio was concerned that people who were not able to purchase the app would just pirate it.

But developers also say that charging for apps simply may not be the path to profit on Android.

“Google is not associated with things you pay for, and Android is an extension of that,” said Mr. Hall of Larva Labs. “You don’t pay for Google apps, so it bleeds into the expectations for the third-party apps, too.”

Google says it hopes to introduce a transaction feature for Android software that will allow purchases within apps, to help developers make more money.

Developers do say that the freedom of Android is a welcome alternative to Apple’s tight control. Android developers have more rein to tinker with the phone’s native functions, like the address book and the basic interface, something Apple has not always allowed. And Apple screens all apps before they can reach its store, while Google imposes no such restriction, relying on Android users to flag malicious or offensive apps.

“With Apple, you can spend months writing software only to be denied,” Mr. Novak said. “The biggest reward as a developer is getting your software out there, and quick. That makes everything else worthwhile.”

Also unlike Apple, Google does not charge developers to sell their apps in its storefront.

Developers are not abandoning iPhone for Android. Instead, they say they are slowly starting to devote more resources to Android in the hope that those efforts will pay off.

They also note that it is a lot easier to stand out in a pool of 100,000 apps versus 300,000, the current tally for Apple’s store.

“Apple’s App Store is getting overcrowded and saturated,” said Eric Metois, a freelance tech consultant who writes apps on the side for the iPhone and Android.

Mr. Metois’s first iPhone app, iChalky, featuring a dancing stick figure, has sold more than 300,000 copies on the iPhone since it was released in December 2008. His second attempt, a game called Sparticle, was not as successful.

“I poured 500 hours into my second app on the iPhone and sold virtually no copies,” Mr. Metois said. In explaining why he recently released an Android version of iChalky, he said, “There was a chance that on another emerging platform, iChalky would have a similar amount of success.”

Analysts say that if Google wants its mobile software to succeed, it will need to make sure that developers do not lose patience with Android — particularly in light of new competition, including the slate of Windows 7 phones from Microsoft and the iPhone’s inevitable expansion to other carriers in the United States besides AT&T.

Mr. Rubin said he was not worried about rivals’ tempering the momentum of Android because he believed its future would stretch past the cellphone, to tablets and other devices yet to be conceived.

“The promise of Android goes beyond one device,” Mr. Rubin said. “We’re going to see products running Android that no one has ever envisioned possible.”

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Rumor: Verizon Staffing Up Call Centers In Preparation For... iPhone? - PC Magazine

Two call centers with previous experience working for Verizon are both looking to staff up—adding thousands of customer service representatives for a, "major wireless cell phone service retailer" that many postulate could be Verizon itself.

If that's the case, is this yet one more sign in the unfolding rumor-mongering that is Verizon's potential iPhone launch?

Apple Insider's Josh Ong says that, "the connection between a flurry of call center recruiting and a Verizon iPhone is tenuous at best." However, both Teleperformance and Ryla both have experience working for Verizon, Apple, or both. The former's pulled double-duty for both companies, whereas Ryla has worked with Verizon for more than ten years.

Ryla's currently hiring for approximately 1,700 new positions across Indiana, Colorado, Virginia, and California. For the 500 or so people the company's seeking in Clovis, California, "The new hires will be answering customer-service calls on behalf of a Ryla client identified only as a Fortune 500 cellular/telecommunications company that expects to increase its marketing and sales," reports Tim Sheehan of The Fresno Bee.

Teleperformance's listing for Pennsylvania positions indicates that employees would, "Take Inbound Customer Service Calls for a major wireless cell phone service retailer."

The locations of its other open positions are a bit more varied—and equally cryptic. Positions in Utah include, "Outbound Sales Reps to sell products to existing customers for a leading software or wireless company," and positions listed in Idaho indicate that an employee would, "Take inbound technical support calls for laptop and mp3 player assistance."

Fanning the rumor flames, Teleperformance vice president of recruiting Marcie Ballard said in an October interview with The Augusta Chronicle that the new positions needed to be lined up by November of this year. More importantly, they would be supporting an existing (and major) wireless client with which the company has secured a brand-new line of business. Unfortunately, Ballard would not say what company that specifically is.

According to a report from Electronista, it would take a given calling center roughly three to four weeks to train employees prior to actually sticking them in a cube. If that's the case, then Teleperformance's November deadline puts the new employees in the chairs right around the January timeframe, assuming delays and time lost for the holidays—and that's the same January, "when many expect a Verizon iPhone to be ready," reports the site.

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Makeup of New Congress Increases Odds of Gridlock - Wall Street Journal

Come January, the House will be composed of an energized conservative Republican majority and a Democratic minority that has become more liberal. At the same time, a more closely divided Senate could make it harder to assemble the 60 votes needed to pass most bills.

Getty Images Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks in Las Vegas on Tuesday, after defeating Republican Sharron Angle in a hotly contested race.

That could be a recipe for legislative gridlock.

In the past year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has struggled to pass legislation even with a 59-seat majority, thwarted by Republican filibusters. The election's outcome remained uncertain in Alaska and Washington state, but it's clear Democrats will emerge with a far smaller majority of 52 or 53 seats out of 100.

In such a narrowly divided Senate, a bipartisan coalition will be required to tackle any difficult issue. Yet some Democrats leaving the Senate, like Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln and Indiana's Evan Bayh, are among the most open to working with Republicans.

Senate, House, governors' and other races at the state, district and county level

Mr. Reid said the election results left the parties no choice but to work together—and that he wanted to do so. But he also said Republicans have been uniformly obstructionist over the past two years.

"The ball is in their court," Mr. Reid. "We made the message very clear that we want to work with the Republicans. If they're unwilling to work with us, there's not a thing we can do about it."

GOP leaders don't see it that way, saying voters rewarded them for blocking Democratic initiatives.

"What the American people were saying yesterday is they appreciate us saying no to things the American people indicated they were not in favor of," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).

Now, he said, it's up to the Democrats to move the Republicans' way.

That might be easier said than done, with the new Senate still including a strong faction of impassioned liberals, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), as well as a group of staunch conservatives like Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R., Ky.).

With every senator having the ability to bring the Senate to a halt under its arcane rules, gridlock in the chamber is a serious risk.

The House is likely to be even more polarized than the Senate. The resurgent Republican majority appears responsive to the populist spirit of the tea party. The Democratic minority, having suffered many losses among its conservative members, will be more broadly liberal.

Twenty-two out of the 53 members of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats lost on Tuesday night, and another five are retiring, significantly weakening a group that has sought to bridge the gap between the two parties.

Many of the centrists who lost were first- or second-term members from conservative districts, and Democrats will have a far smaller foothold in the South and Midwest.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio), who is expected to become speaker in January, told reporters he hoped to work with President Barack Obama, but he didn't mention House Democrats.

Mr. Boehner did speak of "incorporating members of the tea party," which may not bode well for working with the opposition Democrats.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D., Calif.), who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, noted that her liberal group lost only four of its 82 members, in contrast to the Blue Dogs.

"We're not going to give up progressive values just to look like we're cooperating with the tea party," Ms. Woolsey said in an interview. "We cannot become timid."

Beyond the Blue Dogs, Democratic casualties in the House included powerful committee chairmen such as John Spratt of the Budget Committee, Ike Skelton of the Armed Services Committee and Jim Oberstar of the Infrastructure and Transportation Committee. All of them were noted for working with Republicans.

Tuesday's results did suggest a renaissance of Northeastern Republicans in Congress, a species that had been all but extinct. The House will have at least five new Republicans from Pennsylvania, five from New York and two from New Hampshire.

Some may be open to making common cause with Democrats on certain issues. "Centrists Republicans will play a larger and vastly more important role in this new Congress," said former Rep. Tom Davis (R., Va.), who heads the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership.

But given the passion of the small-government activists who powered the Republican sweep, there was little talk of compromise Wednesday in the House. Just hours after polls closed, Republicans faced a messy leadership battle that underlined the dynamic within the party.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) announced a run for chairman of the House Republican Conference, the fourth-ranking position in the House GOP. He was quickly endorsed by Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), a top Republican leader.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.), a high-profile leader of the tea-party movement, announced she was running as well. Neither Mr. Hensarling nor Ms. Bachmann is known for compromising with Democrats, and Ms. Bachmann in particular is given to comments that outrage liberals.

House Democrats faced their own leadership questions as they awaited word from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) about her next step.

Some Democrats expected she would resign her leadership post rather than become minority leader, and perhaps leave Congress entirely. That is what Republicans Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert did after they lost the speakership.

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said she had not yet made her plans known. If Ms. Pelosi doesn't remain, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) would likely become House Democratic leader.

Some Democrats have wondered whether Mr. Hoyer, a centrist who enjoys strong support from the Blue Dogs, would face a challenge in a more liberal-dominated caucus, but so far none has surfaced.

—Alexandra Berzon
and Louise Radnofsky contributed to this article.

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