BUSH SHOWS DEMOCRATS ANOTHER SIDE

A few years ago, when President Bush announced plans to dump nuclear waste in Sen. Harry Reid’s state, it was a political insult so stinging that the Nevada Democrat responded by calling the nation’s commander in chief a liar.

Now Reid, the new Senate majority leader, is getting the red-carpet treatment. The administration treated Reid to two military plane rides in one week. He was invited to an intimate White House party, where Bush politely asked what books Reid had been reading lately.

The contrast is a measure of how the deeply ingrained habits of partisan vitriol are being tested -- and may be starting to break down -- as control of Congress changes hands. After Republicans’ resounding defeat in the fall election, Bush and his lieutenants are paying attention to Democratic power brokers they had all but ignored for years.

The new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, got a Christmas Day phone call from Bush at home in San Francisco. New committee chairmen are enjoying quality face time with Cabinet bigwigs. Even potential White House allies from the Democrats’ conservative wing had been ignored for the last six years, but are now being ushered into the Oval Office.

Those gestures and other bows to bipartisanship are signs that the swearing-in of the new Congress is not just a fresh start for Democrats; it is the end of an era for Bush, who has had the luxury of governing for most of the last six years with his own party in charge of Congress.

New reality

Now Bush will have to burnish rusty skills at working across the political aisle. And he is facing partners in government who view him with deep suspicion and have relationships with the White House that range from frigid to nonexistent.

“We hope that when the president says compromise, it means more than ‘do it my way,’ which is what he’s meant in the past,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, a member of the Democratic leadership, said Wednesday after Bush made a Rose Garden statement calling for an effort to find “common ground.”

Bipartisan agreement will surely be hard to find on some of the most difficult issues facing the nation, such as proposals to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq, shore up the finances of Social Security or balance the federal budget.

But on other, narrower issues, such as overhauling immigration law and cracking down on pork barrel spending, Bush and Democrats in Congress may be able to make common cause.

“It is in the interests of both to try to cut deals where they can -- Bush because he wants to add some accomplishments to his legacy and Democrats because they don’t want to be branded obstructionists in the run-up to 2008,” said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reaching out

The White House has been trying to reach out to more Democrats. According to spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore, Bush has held at least 10 postelection meetings and receptions for Congress members, most of them Democrats.

“You’ll see even more outreach in the future,” she said.

Bush likes to cite his success in dealing with a Democratic-controlled state Legislature while he was Texas governor. A key to that success was his alliance with Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock. But unlike the current lineup of Democratic leaders in Congress, Bullock was a conservative Democrat who had a close personal relationship with Bush.

Reid is certainly no Bullock. The blunt former boxer didn’t stop at calling Bush a liar over his 2002 nuclear waste decision. A few years later, while Bush was abroad, Reid called him a loser. He apologized to Bush for that comment but never retreated from having called him a liar.

The morning after Democrats won control of Congress, Reid said, he was skeptical when Bush called with congratulations and an offer to work together.

“Mr. President,” Reid later said he told Bush, “this is what we talked about two years ago, and we haven’t been able to accomplish anything.”

Bush seemed to allude to Reid’s sharp tongue after meeting with him a few days later. Telling reporters that he and Reid had a lot in common as Westerners, Bush said, “We tend to speak the same language -- pretty plain-spoken people -- which should bode well for our relationship.”

Reid’s tone was different recently when he traveled to South America with a congressional delegation. Meeting with leaders of Bolivia and Ecuador who had been fierce critics of Bush, Reid defended the president’s policies, according to Reid spokesman Jim Manley.

The White House arranged for Reid and his delegation to fly to and from South America on a military plane. That was not as unusual as the second flight the administration arranged -- for Reid and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) to return from former President Ford’s funeral in Michigan by military plane. If Reid and Durbin had taken a commercial flight, they probably would have missed a White House reception Bush gave for new congressional leaders and their spouses Wednesday evening.

Durbin, a liberal Democrat, has an affable relationship with Bush. They have an annual tradition of wisecracking with each other as they enter the House chamber together for the State of the Union address, Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said. But at a recent meeting at the White House, sparks flew when Bush compared himself to President Truman and Durbin pointedly took issue with the parallel.

Pelosi and Bush have many hatchets to bury, because they traded personal barbs during the 2006 campaign. Pelosi called Bush incompetent and oblivious. Bush sniped at her claim to love tax cuts.

“Given her record, she must be a secret admirer,” he said in October.

But after the election, Bush insisted that as political pros, he and Pelosi would forgive and forget.

“If you hold grudges in this line of work, you’re never going to get anything done,” he said.

They share an interest in Sudan’s Darfur region, both having called for an end to genocide there. Pelosi briefed Bush when she returned from a trip to Sudan in March -- but that was the last time she saw him until after Democrats won control of the House, Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said.

“When she was minority leader, he didn’t fully engage her,” said a Pelosi associate who asked not to be named when discussing personal dynamics between the two leaders. “Now he’s much more engaged.”

Wooing Blue Dogs

Bush has also wooed conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs, who might be more willing than liberals to cross party lines. When he invited a small group of them to a December meeting in the Oval Office, Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said he was encouraged by the attention. But he said he told Bush: “Mr. President, I regret it took six years to invite us over for this meeting. I hope it’s the first meeting, not the last.”

Some lawmakers argue that Bush’s best ambassadors to Democrats may be his Cabinet officers. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has been making the rounds among Capitol Hill committee leaders, including House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York. The two recently had a long lunch at the Treasury to discuss common concerns.

Rangel is also hoping to improve relations between the parties on his committee, which was bitterly split in recent years under the chairmanship of Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), who just retired from Congress. Rangel had an hourlong meeting with the new ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, unlike any he ever had with Thomas, he said.

“I never had a conversation with Bill Thomas except at funerals,” Rangel said. He added that it might be easier for Congress to craft compromises without a heavy hand from the president. “The best thing the president can do for us is to leave us alone,” he said.

janet.hook@latimes.com

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‘It’s an historic moment for the women of America’

Excerpts of remarks by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to the House after the vote installing her as speaker:

I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship. And I look forward to working with ... the Republicans in the Congress for the good of the American people....

In this House we may be different parties, but we serve one country. And our pride and our prayers are united behind our men and women in uniform. They are working together to protect the American people. And in this Congress we must work together to build a future worthy of their sacrifice....

Each of us brings to this Congress our shared values, our commitment to the Constitution and our personal experience. My path to Congress and to the speakership began in Baltimore, where my father was the mayor. I was raised in a large family that was devoutly Catholic, deeply patriotic, very proud of our Italian American heritage and staunchly Democratic.

My parents taught us that public service was a noble calling, and that we had a responsibility to help those in need....

And today, I thank my colleagues. By electing me speaker, you have brought us closer to the ideal of equality that is America’s heritage and America’s hope....

It’s an historic moment for the Congress. It’s an historic moment for the women of America. It is a moment for which we have waited over 200 years....

But women weren’t just waiting. Women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and our granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling. For our daughters and our granddaughters now, the sky is the limit....

The election of 2006 was a call to change, not merely to change the control of Congress, but for a new direction for our country. Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in the war in Iraq.

The American people rejected an open-ended obligation to a war without end.

Shortly, President Bush will address the nation on the subject of Iraq. It is the responsibility of the president to articulate a new plan for Iraq that makes it clear to the Iraqis that they must defend their own streets and their own security, a plan that ... promotes stability in the region and a plan that allows us to responsibly redeploy our troops....

The American people also spoke clearly for a new direction here at home. They desire a new vision, a new America built on the values that have made our country great....

Now it is our responsibility to carry forth that vision of a new America into the 21st century, a new America that seizes the future and forges 21st century solutions through discovery, creativity and innovation, sustaining our economic leadership and ensuring our national security -- a new America with a vibrant and strengthened middle class for whom college is affordable, healthcare is accessible and retirement reliable....

After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go; no new deficit spending....

In order to achieve our new America for the 21st century, we must return this House to the American people. So our first order of business is passing the toughest congressional ethics reform in history.

This new Congress doesn’t have two years or 200 days. Let us join together in the first 100 hours to make this, the Congress, the most honest and open Congress in history. One hundred hours. One hundred hours....

-- From Federal News Service

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The new-look Congress

The House of Representatives convened Thursday with Democrats taking control for the first time in 12 years. Here’s a look at the makeup of the 110th Congress:

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Party control

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Senate breakdown

Democrats: 50

Republicans: 49

Independent: 1

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House breakdown

Democrats: 233

Republicans: 202

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Demographics

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Average age

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Senate

110th: 62

109th: 60

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House

110th: 56

109th: 55

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Number of women

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Senate

110th: 16

109th: 14

108th: 14

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House

110th: 74

109th: 68

108th: 63

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Minorities

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Senate

Black: 1

Latino: 3

Asian: 2

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House

Black: 42

Latino: 27

Asian: 7

American Indian: 1

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Religion

Of House and Senate members who cite a religious affiliation, most are Protestants; the single largest denomination is Roman Catholic. The freshman class of the House has the first Muslim and the first two Buddhists to serve in Congress.

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Military service

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Senate

With: 29

Without: 71

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House

With: 102

Without: 333

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Sources: Congressional Research Service, Congressional Quarterly, Associated Press