WASHINGTON -- Call it the Congress weight loss plan.

Freshman Rep. Mike Kelly, the Republican from Butler who handily unseated first-term Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper in November, has been constantly on the move in his first few days as a congressman. He walks across the sprawling Capitol complex so much that he doesn't even have time to eat.

And for the 62-year-old former Notre Dame lineman, who has added a few pounds since his football days, that might be a good thing.

"You can't have food in your mouth and try to talk to people, so that's good," he said in a recent interview. "I'm looking to get really healthy in this job, I am."

Mr. Kelly also wants to put the federal government on a diet. Like many freshman Republicans, he campaigned heavily on spending reductions and a limit to government overreach. He compares federal agencies and programs to toxic waste -- "It just stays for ever and ever and ever."

Unlike the chain of Mike Kelly car dealerships in the Butler area, his name isn't on the marquee here, and as a House freshman he is just one voice of many. Still, the gregarious Mr. Kelly has become a budding media star for the vast GOP freshman class that brought Republicans control of the House.

The oldest of the freshmen, he was the subject of a Dec. 29 front-page profile in The Washington Post and sparred with Democratic Reps. Anthony Weiner of New York and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida in an appearance on the CBS Sunday morning program "Face the Nation" on Jan. 2.

"He comes in as a conservative from a swing district, and he's getting a great deal of attention because he knocked off a moderate Democrat and he has embraced those conservative positions and he's being celebrated in D.C. as part of the new wave," said Dan Shea, a professor and director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College in Meadville.

"There's a great deal of attention for that. He's living in the moment as the new conservative kid. 'Face the Nation' was part of that."

Seated in his office, Mr. Kelly chuckled when recalling his national television appearance, during which Mr. Weiner chastised him about the responsibility to govern rather than just campaign against Washington.

"It wasn't life-threatening," he said. "No, I thought they were kinda cute. No, really. No, seriously. How could you take [Mr. Weiner] seriously? This guy's never had a job. How can I sit there, this guy's going to tell me how to run a business when he's never been in business? Are you kidding me? Give me a break. No, no, they were entertaining to be around."

When the government took over General Motors and started mandating how he ran his dealerships, Mr. Kelly was inspired to run for Congress. For Mr. Kelly, "small-business owner" is a much more attractive title than "congressman," and he speaks from the former perspective as often as possible.

"The biggest thing Congress can do is make it easier on small businesses to survive," he said. "The money I don't have to spend on an overreaching government -- whether it's regulation or taxes -- I can put back into my business, my infrastructure."

At the dealership, he had to learn how to cut waste and balance a budget -- lessons he says Washington must learn quickly or risk catastrophe. That practical experience, said Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, will serve Mr. Kelly well in his new job.

"That's where colleagues will be looking to him when we talk about this federal law or this tax rule or this regulation, what does this mean -- he'll be able to describe it from first-person experience," Mr. Murphy said. "Because he's been around with some experience. He's pleasant. He's optimistic. I think he's in Congress for all the right reasons."

As with most Republicans nationwide, reining in Washington animated most of Mr. Kelly's campaign and now that he's arrived one of the first items on the agenda is a repeal of the health care law. With probable failure in the Senate and a guaranteed veto by President Barack Obama, the vote -- originally scheduled for last week but postponed after the Jan. 8 shootings in Arizona -- is entirely symbolic.

But Mr. Kelly said it's important for the new Republican House to show the public it intends not only to attack the bill but also to dry up its funding.

"More than anything else it was a tremendous invasion on liberty and freedom," Mr. Kelly said.

A challenge for Mr. Kelly will be if and how he breaks with GOP orthodoxy. Before Ms. Dahlkemper, the 3rd Congressional District had been the province of moderate, Erie-area Republicans Phil English and Tom Ridge. Yet Mr. Kelly, whose Butler home is at the southern end of the district, emerged from a crowded primary last year as an ardent conservative and didn't waver during the campaign.

"In places like Erie, Mike Kelly is going to be under pressure to reach out to Reagan Democrats and the sorts of voters who are blue-collar workers that have been badly hit by the economy and historically have supported Republicans like Tom Ridge, but also supported Democrats like Senate candidate Joe Sestak," said Mr. English, who served seven terms before losing to Mrs. Dahlkemper in 2008.

"There's no question that he is going to face a real challenge this time, and he is going to have to be very careful about how he presents his votes for cutting spending, to addressing tax issues. My feeling is that he has a very good opportunity to make his case."

Mr. English said Mr. Kelly doesn't seem ideologically out of sync with a district that Mr. Obama and Republican John McCain virtually tied in 2008, and his experience on Butler's city council and school board give him a pragmatic outlook.

Mr. Shea said two areas Mr. Kelly could depart the party line will be on education and labor issues, which he'll have a hand in shaping on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

Mr. Kelly said having several teachers in his family and nine colleges and universities in his district make him excited to take on the challenge of education reform, particularly in building up vocational and technical schools.

Mr. Kelly also serves on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by the aggressive antagonist to the Obama administration Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., whom Mr. Kelly praised as "a straight-talking guy" with a similar business background.

On Oversight, Mr. Kelly said he hopes to get into trimming the size and scope of government. But even when warning of a fiscal apocalypse -- "It's not the 11th hour anymore; it's 5 minutes to midnight," he said -- Mr. Kelly exudes a sunny disposition coupled with a salesman's fast-paced delivery and back-slapping charm.

And in the first few days of his new job, Mr. Kelly seems to be enjoying himself, though at times awestruck with the responsibility and opportunity that awaits.

"I've been a big fan of continuing education, so it's nice to be a freshman at 62," he said. "I'm getting another degree."

First Published: January 17, 2011, 10:00 a.m.