Washington - Sitting at a conference table in his Capitol office, Rep. Steny Hoyer picked up a Capitol Hill newspaper and draped it in front of his face, like a veil.
"I don't work for Obama," declared the front-page headline, in large black type.
The words came from the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada. But Hoyer of Maryland, the number-two Democrat in the House, wanted to echo the sentiment.
Hoyer told a group of journalists seated around the table that while he's excited to see Barack Obama become president, he hopes that the Democratic Congress will live up to its constitutional duty to check the power of the executive.
As the age of Obama dawns, politicians in both parties seem to be playing against type.
Democrats are flaunting their independence, insisting that they won't be rubber stamps for Obama and demanding changes in his first big initiative, an economic stimulus package. Republicans, meantime, are largely suffering in silence, muting their criticism as a Democratic president takes charge.
Over the next few weeks, senators and congressmen of both parties will likely fall in line behind Obama's economic plan. The main questions, at the moment, center on how swiftly Congress will act and how broad the support will be - not whether the new president's proposal will get blocked.
The betting in Washington is that Obama is about to embark on an extended honeymoon with the public and Congress. It could extend through much of this year and rival the success of Ronald Reagan, who took the capital by storm in a way that no new president has since.
Members of Congress, with a collective job approval rating under 20 percent in most polls, are likely to think long and hard before picking an early fight with Obama, whose popularity remains high. About 65 percent of Americans say they're confident in his ability to be a good president, according to Gallup's latest tracking poll.
Obama will confront, said Hoyer, "some of the most difficult circumstances that a new president" has faced, an economic slump that many are calling the worst in more than half a century, plus twin conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the new crisis in Gaza.
Obama's ability to deal effectively with his former colleagues in Congress over the stimulus package may well set the tone for his presidency. It could determine how successful he'll be when he takes on more ambitious challenges, such as the enormous fiscal imbalance caused by an aging population and efforts to overhaul the health care system.
