CONGRESS IN DEMOCRATS’ HANDS

Ending two days of uncertainty, Republican Sens. George Allen in Virginia and Conrad Burns in Montana conceded defeat Thursday, giving Democrats control of both branches of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

Control of the Senate had hung in the balance while the vote counts were completed in the two states. But both Republicans acknowledged Thursday that the final totals would not change the outcome.

Burns conceded to challenger Jon Tester early in the day, turning all eyes to Virginia, where election workers were tallying ballots and Allen was trailing Democrat Jim Webb by less than half a percentage point. But Allen, who had sounded a defiant note on election night, changed his tune Thursday, saying he would forgo a recount to avoid increasing acrimony in an already toxic political environment.

The day’s events sealed a change that began Tuesday, when voters turned out in record numbers to express anger over the protracted war in Iraq and allegations of congressional corruption.

It also opened a new era of divided government, with the legislative branch in the control of one party and the executive in the control of the other -- an alignment that historically has frustrated both.

At the White House, President Bush ushered out the old guard, breakfasting with House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). The tone of the meeting, spokesman Tony Snow said, was one of resignation: “It is what it is.”

Bush then ushered in the new guard, lunching with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the presumed new speaker, and her deputy, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). Asked what was on the menu, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett quipped to CBS: “For the president, it’s probably a bit of crow.”

And as Republicans came to terms with the political realignment in Washington, party officials confirmed Thursday that Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman -- an acolyte of Bush strategist Karl Rove and a chief engineer of the GOP political machinery for the last six years -- would step aside after his term ends in January.

The Bush-Pelosi meeting was a kind of detente in the partisan battle the two have waged for much of the president’s six years in office. The two leaders expressed confidence that they could cooperate, even as they acknowledged deep differences over policy and wounded feelings from the hard-fought campaign.

“The elections are now behind us, and the congresswoman’s party won,” Bush said in the Oval Office as he concluded his meeting with Pelosi, who will take charge of the House in January. “But the challenges still remain. And therefore, we’re going to work together to address those challenges in a constructive way.”

Pelosi, sitting in an armchair across from the president, said: “We’ve made history. Now we have to make progress. And I look forward to working with the president to do just that.”

Allen was conciliatory in conceding that he had lost his Senate seat.

“In this season, the people of Virginia -- who I also call the owners of the government -- they have spoken. And I respect their decision,” Allen said.

“I do not wish to cause more rancor by protracted litigation, which would, in my judgment, not alter the results. I see no good purpose served by continuously and needlessly expending money and causing any more personal animosity.”

Webb thanked Allen for being “very gracious,” but he tossed out a rhetorical challenge to Bush: “I would like to also today call on our president to publicly denounce the campaign tactics that have divided us rather than brought us together. This was ... in many ways an unnecessarily brutal campaign. And I think it’s hurting the country.”

On Capitol Hill, with the building’s white dome as a backdrop, Senate Democrats held an afternoon victory rally dotted with American flags and marked by chants of “Harry, Harry, Harry,” for Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“The election’s over. It’s time for a change,” said Reid, who is expected to become majority leader.

But even at their moment of triumph, the leaders acknowledged that because they hold the narrowest of majorities in the Senate -- 51 Democrats and independents to 49 Republicans -- they will need to work closely with the GOP if they want to pass anything in the chamber, where the minority party has broad powers to block legislation.

“Make no mistake about it. Our joy today will vanish if we can’t produce for the American people,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, who headed the Democrats’ Senate campaign committee. “We will have to work hard, in a bipartisan way. We will have to push aside the special interests and always keep our eye on the average American family. If we can do that, we will stay a majority for a generation. And that is what we aim to do.”

The last extended period of divided government was in the 1990s under Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, who antagonized President Clinton with a strongly conservative agenda -- eventually shutting down the federal government in an effort to get his way on the budget.

In an interview with a handful of reporters Thursday, Pelosi said she would exercise power differently if she were chosen to lead the House when the new Congress convenes in January.

“I think you have to govern from the center,” Pelosi said.

She declined to describe her conversation with Bush in detail, but said she proposed several areas where the parties can work together. Among them, she said, were immigration, energy independence and increasing American competitiveness. Pelosi said she underscored to the president the urgency of adjusting U.S. strategy in Iraq, referring to the war as “the biggest issue we discussed.”

The departure of Mehlman, a former White House political director and manager of Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, leaves the party without a leader just as a wide-open 2008 campaign for president gets underway.

GOP officials denied that Mehlman was leaving because of the election results. Rather, they said, he informed the White House in August of his intention to leave and planned to announce it in the coming weeks. But with White House officials beginning to search for a new chairman, the news leaked out, first reported late Thursday by CNN.

Mehlman, 40, was credited with building the party’s massive “Voter Vault” database that has transformed the way Republican candidates seek support and is considered crucial for the GOP’s hopes of keeping the White House.

During a lunch with reporters, he defended the party’s election playbook, saying the practice of “micro-targeting” voters with hard-hitting niche messages helped save the GOP’s candidates in at least 13 close House races that could have gone the other direction.

But Mehlman acknowledged that the party might have grown inflexible, as evidenced by the losses of moderates such as Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. “We as a party need to be very careful to make sure we are a big-tent party that is always growing and that is always inclusive and does not have a litmus test on issues,” he said.

“All Republicans need to look in the mirror and figure out how we can do better.”

maura.reynolds@latimes.com

Times staff writers Peter Wallsten, James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman contributed to this report.