Congressional Democratic leaders enter the year-end push with a host of volatile battles looming and time running out on their ability to control the national agenda.

By early February, the party’s message and congressional agenda will start being shaped by the presumptive presidential nominee rather than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). And as election season moves into high gear, enacting signature pieces of legislation will grow increasingly difficult, making the coming weeks crucial for the new Democratic majority to muscle through bills they can tout in 2008.

Even though Democrats this year have pushed through an increase in the minimum wage, the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, an ethics overhaul and a bill to lower student loans, Congress’s approval ratings are at historic lows. And Democrats are eager to score some more political points before the two-week Thanksgiving recess and final adjournment before Christmas Day.

Scoring legislative gains in the coming weeks, however, will be no small task. Democrats will try to tackle some of the biggest issues of the year, including a repeal or patch of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a change in Iraq war policy, an overhaul of President Bush’s domestic wiretapping program and the 10 remaining annual appropriations bills. A number of prominent second-tier issues are also still unfinished, such as energy legislation and the farm bill.

The next two months, however, could be the last time both Reid and Pelosi play the lead role in framing the debate.
“The principal messenger, obviously, is going to be the nominee of the party, known, in all likelihood, on the evening of Feb. 5, when we have 25 states having elections, primary elections, on one day,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, said he expects a coordinated message next year between congressional Democratic leaders and the party’s presidential nominee, and he said that a polarizing presidential battle will not stifle congressional activities.

Striking a similar note, Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the next few weeks are critical, but he still expects a productive 2008 filled with action on global warming legislation, consumer safety measures and “holding the administration” accountable on Iraq.

But if the last six weeks are any indication, gaining traction is becoming increasingly difficult for Democrats. For instance, House Republican leaders have stalled a vote on a Democrat-backed bill to impose new oversight on Bush’s foreign-intelligence surveillance program and prevented Democrats from overriding Bush’s veto on a bill to cover 10 million children under SCHIP with an increase in the tobacco tax.

Last week, Democrats overcame a Bush veto on a water projects bill and cleared a $459 billion Pentagon funding bill, but the GOP handed Senate Democrats setbacks on some key issues.

Debate stalled over a five-year farm bill because of a procedural snafu between the two parties. Later in the week, Senate Republicans successfully stripped $65 billion in funding for veterans’ and military construction programs out of a separate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill because they wanted the measures to move on separate tracks. And that was capped by the Senate’s confirmation of Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, despite Democratic opposition.

Republicans expect Democrats to capitulate even more in the year’s final push.

“We’re in store for a lot of Mukasey-like situations,” a Senate Republican leadership aide said. “They’re going to fight it, fight it and fight it, and at the end, they are going to capitulate.”

Repealing the AMT is a must for Democrats because Congress would otherwise likely be blamed for millions of middle-class families having to pay new taxes.

Democrats want to repeal the AMT but are torn about how to pay for it, which has sparked a debate over whether to raise taxes on wealthy Americans or brush aside rules they created for tax cuts to be offset by revenue-generating measures. Senate Republicans will be largely united against any new tax increases.

On appropriations legislation, Democrats want to spend about $22 billion more than the White House on domestic programs, which they argue have been shortchanged during the Bush years. But the White House is opposed, and congressional Republicans are expected to sustain Bush vetoes over most spending legislation.

On Iraq, Democrats will try to move a so-called “bridge fund” this week to provide interim funding for the year with restrictions calling for Bush to change his policy and start bringing troops home. But Democrats may be forced to send the president a clean bill without the policy restrictions because of the lack of GOP support.

Democrats say Republicans are at risk if they want to block an agenda to provide tax relief to millions of middle-class Americans, invest in medical research and infrastructure and change Bush’s war policies.

 “If that’s what their priorities are, let’s have a debate on our priorities,” a Democratic leadership aide said.

On SCHIP, Democrats see the opportunity for political gain. They can blame Republicans for siding with the White House in blocking an expansion of the health insurance program.

Each of these arguments plays into the larger campaign schemes, with Election Day less than one year away.

Republicans say Democrats have mismanaged Capitol Hill with scant legislative achievements, but Democrats are blaming Senate Republicans and the White House for blocking progress on a popular agenda.

“I think the most important thing for Pelosi and Reid is to show that they have tried to pass legislation, and if it fails, it fails because of Republicans in the Senate,” said Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University.

And Democrats are trying to stress that point.

“Maybe picking up a few more senators will make our job a little bit easier,” Reid said last week.