President reaches out to willing Democrats

President Bush is quietly seeking support from a growing number of congressional Democrats who would rather work with him than fight him on issues such as Social Security reform.

“I think there are some of us who are willing to work to find solutions to difficult problems,” Rep. Allen Boyd of Florida said. “We can do a better job of working across party lines than we’ve done in the past.”

To the chagrin of Democratic leaders, Mr. Boyd broke party ranks on Tuesday by showing up at a press conference to support a bill aimed at partially privatizing Social Security, a key component of the president’s planned reform. The legislation was written by Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona.

“Look, if you’re going to have meaningful reform, you’ve got to get past this notion that we attack them for every position or idea they float out,” Mr. Boyd said.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan made it clear that the overture did not go unnoticed by the president.

“We certainly appreciate Congressman Boyd, a Democrat, coming out in strong support of fixing this problem,” the spokesman said.

Mr. Boyd is not the only Democrat demonstrating a willingness to work with Mr. Bush just weeks after he and his party trounced Democrats after an acrimonious campaign. On Tuesday, Rep. Jane Harman of California praised Mr. Bush’s leadership after House passage of an intelligence-reform bill.

“It was clear that he and his staff were all over this bill,” enthused Mrs. Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

She was among 96 percent of House Democrats who voted for the bill, compared with just 69 percent of House Republicans.

Meanwhile, the White House announced yesterday that Mr. Bush has asked Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, a Democrat who was also a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet, to stay for a second term. The president also asked several Republicans to remain in his Cabinet.

The announcement came less than a week after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy showed up at the White House to support the president’s reauthorization of a bill providing education funds to the disabled. But the Massachusetts Democrat made no secret of his thorny relationship with the administration on other issues.

When Mr. Kennedy was reminded that in 2002, he showed up at another education bill signing, only to eventually turn against Mr. Bush’s level of funding for the No Child Left Behind Act, he said, “That’s a matter of dispute between the administration and myself. We will have our differences.”

In an effort to minimize those differences, Mr. Bush on Monday invited five Democrats and five Republicans to an Oval Office meeting to discuss Social Security. Despite Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, the president recognizes that he cannot pass reform without the help of at least some Democrats.

“I want to emphasize that the president wants to work in a bipartisan way with all members of Congress who are committed to getting this done,” Mr. McClellan said.

One of the Democrats in attendance was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who has refrained from overtly attacking the president’s plan to reform Social Security.

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