WITH the Democrats now in charge of the Senate and House of Representatives, President George W Bush has begun a charm offensive designed to divide and rule.
On Christmas Day, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, got a sweet-talking phone call from the president. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has already been treated to two military plane rides.

 
 
Democrat committee chairs and policy bigwigs are being ushered in and out of the Oval Office to discuss Iraq and other momentous issues. Their views are being politely canvassed by ingratiating cabinet members, who face a potential blizzard of subpoenas and non-stop appearances in Congress to explain themselves before Democrat-led committees.

Bush has held at least 10 receptions and meetings for mainly Democrat members of Congress. “You’ll see even more outreach in the future,” cooed Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman.

It is a humbling change since the days when Dick Cheney told a Democrat on the Senate floor to “go f*** yourself”.

Now the vice-president’s own office on Capitol Hill has been commandeered by Charles Rangel, the new chairman of the House ways and means committee, who once called Cheney a “son of a bitch”.

Rangel arranged for Cheney’s belongings to be removed over the holidays and from his new office will control some of the government’s most important purse-strings, including taxation and social security.

The veteran New York politician has already had a long lunch with Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary.

The Democrats intend to make the most of their first 100 days, with plans to raise the minimum wage, cut student loan rates, cheapen prescription drugs and introduce federal funding for stem-cell research.

“I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship,” said Pelosi as she took charge of the House, but few believed that her warm words would last long.

One Republican veteran of the battles between a Republican-controlled Congress and Bill Clinton’s Democratic White House in the 1990s said the Bush administration was utterly unprepared for dealing with an oppositional Congress.

“The message hasn’t sunk in because they don’t understand the pain the e-mail revolution can cause,” he said. “There are a lot of stupid written words out there that the Democrats will be able to get their hands on through subpoenas.”

One sign that the White House is preparing for a fight was the announcement last week of the resignation of Harriet Miers, Bush’s legal counsel.

Asked the reason for her departure, Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said: “She has been here six years.”

A more convincing explanation is that her office will be the battleground for clashes with Congress over the extent of its power to subpoena administration officials and documents. “The White House knew they needed to get a tough street fighter — that’s what this is about,” said a Republican adviser.

However, neither Bush nor the Democrats can afford to appear too partisan or shrill. There will be many more lovey-dovey exchanges before the hand-to-hand combat starts.