Democratic leaders have racked up impressive numbers in their first 100 days: 189 recorded votes in the House; 53 days, including a Saturday, in session for the Senate; and an approval rating 15 points higher than last year’s Republican-controlled Congress.

But by GOP measurements, the Democratic majority has had zero impact. Republicans note that the president signed none of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) vaunted “Six for ’06” priority bills by April 14, the 100th day of the new majority’s tenure.

“The energy of the first 100 days has been a repudiation of the Bush era,” Simon Rosenberg, founder of the centrist New Democrat Network, said. “They have changed the agenda. Momentum has shifted.”

Few of the “Six for ’06” items are close to becoming law; measures on embryonic stem cell research and enactment of the 9/11 Commission recommendations face vetoes. But Democrats see little downside to challenging President Bush on issues that isolate him from the majority of public opinion.

Republicans weathered massive defections during the House’s first 100 hours but regrouped with several victories on motions to recommit. They are also learning to love the veto pen.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) acknowledged that more bills this year would follow the path of the war supplemental, initially passing both houses to prevent Republicans from being tagged as obstructionist, then stopping at Bush’s desk.

“Sometimes it’s smarter to let it get through, and get a veto,” Lott said.

He saw little wisdom in Democrats’ willingness to court vetoes, asking, “Are we going to have to do everything twice or three times to get it right? I assume, beginning in May, we’re going to do things in a more traditional, somewhat more bipartisan way.”

Democrats have pursued three main goals since winning the Nov. 7 election, Senate Democratic Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) told reporters last week: changing Bush’s Iraq policy, implementing oversight, and “do[ing] things for average folks, mak[ing] their lives better.”

Democratic oversight of domestic issues has exposed GOP divisions as often and as effectively as have repeated votes on Iraq. Two Senate Republicans have called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s resignation, just as two have voted with Democrats on Iraq redeployment.

Some Democratic activists who praise Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for challenging Bush’s management of the war are concerned that the party has not followed through on campaign promises.
“It’s just not clear whether they’re going to push forward aggressively in the direction that they promised to move on domestic issues in the 2006 election,” said David Sirota, a liberal strategist and blogger who worked for Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont (Conn.).

If voter unhappiness with the Iraq war, corruption and trade policy carried Democrats to victory in 2006, Sirota said, he is worried that Democrats have passed legislation only related to the war.

“No moves have been made on trade. … On the issue of corruption, they have signaled that it is basically business as usual,” he said.

Although both chambers have approved stronger ethics rules, Democrats have yet to move officially on the reform dearest to fiscal conservatives’ hearts. Earmark disclosures that Pelosi crafted have not yet taken effect in the Senate, where Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) today will push to pass them as rules changes.

“The jury’s still out on the Democratic commitment to fiscal discipline,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense. “On the [continuing resolution] they did strip the earmarks and had a minimum of budgetary gamesmanship in the bill. But at the same time, you can look at what we’ve got going on right now in the supplemental, where they’ve added billions of dollars of extraneous spending.”

Within the Democratic caucuses, there have been a few flare-ups in an otherwise remarkable display of unity for a party known for its diversity and public spats.

Reid and Pelosi maintain strong lines of communication even though House priorities proceed slowly through the Senate.

The Speaker nearly cut short her honeymoon when she declared support for the majority leader campaign of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). Her intense lobbying effort began immediately and ended in  failure.

Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) crushed Murtha by 149 votes to 86, after which members heard Pelosi refer to lawmakers who had assured Murtha of their support as “liars.”

Pelosi then irked some powerful committee chairmen by not telling them she was keeping the GOP term-limit rule in place. “That could have been handled better, yes,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

No similar intra-party squabbles have occurred in the Senate, where Democratic leaders let Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) attach more than $8 billion in business tax breaks to the minimum-wage hike and choose a narrower approach than the House to revamping the Medicare prescription-drug benefit.

Pelosi herself did not think in terms of a “100 days” agenda, a senior Democratic leadership aide said. To move past the bitter leadership race, the Democrats began moving to enact targeted, symbolic changes.

“She always saw it in terms of 100 hours and is very proud of the successful action on the Six for ’06,” the aide said, adding that Pelosi was “pleased to complete the continuing resolution with a minimum of pain.”

The biggest tests have yet to come for the new majority, for example on global warming legislation. Some in Pelosi’s caucus remain leery about her creation of a select committee on climate change with little consultation with those affected by her decisions.

Reid plans this week to meet the committee leaders in charge of the issue, Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).
There are also pitfalls for Democrats on Iraq, even as they savor the 40 percent approval ratings reported in last week’s AP-Ipsos poll. (Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling firm, also released data this month showing Democrats trouncing Republicans by 15 points in generic match-ups against incumbents).

But debate on the Iraq supplemental spending bill has taken a toll on the Democrats. Favorable feelings toward the “Congress” and the “Democratic Congress” are down by 3 net points since the first 100 hours ended.

Democracy Corps’s analysis showed that the public remains divided on whether Republicans will take too long or Democrats will move too fast to withdraw troops from Iraq.