Washington – President Bush, conceding that he and his party got a good political “thumping” on Election Day, promised Wednesday to work with the new Democratic leaders of Congress on Iraq, immigration and other contentious issues.
“I’m confident we can overcome the temptation to divide this country between red and blue,” Bush said. He vowed “a new era of cooperation.”
As more ballots were counted Wednesday, it appeared Democrats had defeated two more incumbent Republicans – Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Conrad Burns of Montana – giving the Democrats control of the Senate as well as the House.
The party also won GOP-held seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Rhode Island, giving it the six needed for control of the Senate.
But the final composition of the Senate may not be certain for weeks, as Republicans spoke Wednesday of demanding a time-consuming recount of the Virginia results.
Bush quickly promised to cooperate with Senate Democrats and with Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, on track to become the first women to serve as speaker of the House.
Several House districts remained too close to call, but not enough to deny a Democratic majority.
Bush invited Democratic leaders to the White House for lunch today. He also offered national security briefings to the newly elected Democratic members of Congress and promised to consider the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which is co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, a Democrat.
Baker is a longtime confidant of Bush’s father who helped the younger Bush secure the presidency in the 2000 election recount.
“I recognize that many Americans voted … to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made” in Iraq, said the president, who on Wednesday announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and picked former CIA Director Robert Gates to replace him.
Only last week, Bush told reporters that he expected Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to stay on through the end of his presidency. Wednesday, he admitted that he misled the press and public because he didn’t want to mix politics with the conduct of the war on the eve of an election.
Pelosi welcomed the president’s overtures, which began with a “very, very early” phone call Wednesday morning.
She said that the change in the civilian leadership at the Pentagon would “signal an openness to new, fresh ideas” on Iraq.
Pelosi and other Democrats were cautious when discussing the war Wednesday. She said that “we must not continue on this catastrophic path” in Iraq but added, “Hopefully we can work with the president for a new direction.”
Bush used rueful humor to mask some of the disappointment he felt at Tuesday’s reversals. When asked why he was departing from his previous political strategy, which relied on polarizing confrontations to stimulate his party’s conservative base, Bush replied: “What’s changed today is the election is over, and the Democrats won.”
At one point he noted the presence of his top political adviser, Karl Rove, in the room. “I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was,” Bush said.
Bush said that he thought he could work with Democrats on comprehensive immigration reform with a guest- worker program, as well as on extending some of the Republican tax cuts, increasing the minimum wage and reauthorizing his signature education law, the No Child Left Behind act.
Bush ducked a question about increasing federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which he vetoed this year after Congress approved a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
But he said that he shared the Democratic goal of U.S. energy independence, and suggested that he would try again to prod Congress on the top domestic priority of his second term: reform of Social Security and other entitlement programs.
“You’ll see a lot of meetings with Democrats, and a lot of discussion with Democrats,” the president said. “I believe we can get a lot done.”
When reminded of some of the harsh criticism tossed at him by Pelosi and other Democrats during the campaign, he shrugged them off as political rhetoric.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” Bush said. “This is not the first time I’ve been in a campaign where people expressed themselves.”
Staff writer John Aloysius Farrell can be reached at 202-662-8920 or jfarrell@denverpost.com.
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