WASHINGTON — Unwilling to cede the post-State of the Union spotlight, Senate Democrats will take on President Bush today before the granite memorial of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, father of the New Deal and the Social Security system.

As Bush hits the road to promote his proposal to revamp Social Security, Democrats plan to stand in the cold and excoriate the president, accusing him of dismantling a 70-year-old promise to senior citizens.

In the first two weeks of the president's second term, Democrats largely have thrown away any talk of cooperation. Instead, they are fighting Bush at every turn, opposing his nominees and threatening to block his No. 1 initiative, the creation of private investment accounts as a part of Social Security.

That continued last night as Democrats ripped into Bush's record on Iraq and terrorism and his ideas on Social Security.

"The Bush plan isn't really Social Security reform — it's more like Social Security roulette," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Claiming the proposal would add $2 trillion to the national debt, Reid added: "That's an immoral burden to place on the backs of the next generation."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., critiqued Bush's national-security record, saying the administration has fallen short when it comes to securing borders and preparing Iraq for independence.

She pressed the president for "a credible plan to bring our troops home and stabilize Iraq."

As many as 40 Senate Democrats may vote today against Bush's pick to become attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. Twelve Democrats last week voted against Condoleezza Rice, the most to oppose a nominee for secretary of state in 180 years.

From state capitals to Capitol Hill, Democrats say the problem rests with a partisan White House unwilling to work constructively across the aisle.

"Democratic governors have offered to work with the president on a bipartisan basis on Social Security and Medicaid, but we've been rebuffed," complained New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., recalled working with another conservative president, Ronald Reagan, on some items, such as Social Security, while opposing him on others, such as supply-side economics.

The decision to take a bipartisan approach, she said, rests largely with Bush. "If this is lip-service politics, then we're at war," Mikulski said.

Republicans, however, say they are astonished that Democrats are showing such intransigence when it comes to their "common-sense reform measures. After 10 years (in the minority), you just wonder if the Democrats are running out of ways to say no," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

But Democrats say that many in their party who voted for Bush's tax cuts later found the president campaigning hard against them anyway. "The Bush strategy of never crossing the aisle except to campaign against the other side is coming back to haunt him," said Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council. Still, Democrats say that there is no calculated decision to oppose Bush on all fronts.

"I wouldn't overreact to what's happened in the last two weeks," cautioned Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the assistant Democratic leader.

Durbin said Republicans seem to think Democrats should sit down and be quiet since they lost the election. But when it comes to challenging nominations, he said, Democratic senators are carrying out their constitutional duty. "I don't think it is being impudent," Durbin said yesterday during debate over Gonzales. "I think it is what we were elected to do. ... Our silence would be inappropriate."

Pelosi's comments were from USA Today.