US President George W. Bush pledged today to cooperate with the new Democratic-controlled Senate even as he pressed ahead with a divisive bid to get John Bolton confirmed as UN ambassador.
Adjusting to a shift of power after Democrats captured both houses of Congress in Tuesday's elections, Mr Bush met the party's Senate leaders who will have increased influence over his policies at home and abroad, including the unpopular war in Iraq.
"The election's over. The problems haven't gone away," Mr Bush said at the end of the meeting. "There is a great opportunity for us to show the country ... that we can work together."
US President George W Bush
But his call for bipartisanship after years of bitter political battles between his Republicans and opposition Democrats could be undercut by his renewed effort to push through Mr Bolton's nomination.
Yesterday, the President Bush urged leaders of the outgoing Republican-led Senate to confirm Mr Bolton, a favourite of conservatives, before the Democrats take over Congress early next year.
Democrats blocked Mr Bolton's confirmation last year, saying he had used an earlier job as top US diplomat for arms control to manipulate intelligence to promote his hawkish views. He has been serving as UN envoy under a temporary appointment by Bush that allows him to stay until January.
Democratic lawmakers, joined by key Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, vowed not to support Mr Bolton's renomination, imperilling Mr Bush's attempts to keep him in the post.
If Mr Bolton goes, he would be the administration's second major second casualty since Republicans suffered humiliating defeats at the polls on Tuesday, hammered by voters disillusioned with Bush's handling of the Iraq war.
Mr Bush quickly announced the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the lightning rod for criticism of US Iraq policy, and insisted he was open to new ideas on the conduct of the war. Iraq figured prominently in his talks with Senate Democrats today.
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the new Congress, said last night Mr Bolton's nomination was "going nowhere".
Opponents of the nomination said the elections, widely seen as the voters' repudiation of Mr Bush's Iraq war strategy, showed a new direction was needed in foreign policy.