President George W. Bush Wednesday vetoed an emotive children's health bill, igniting a fierce new clash with Democrats, now spoiling for a fight on domestic issues after failing to end the Iraq war.
Bush has repeatedly defied Democratic attempts to change his war strategy, so his political foes are now plotting new lines of attack on health, delinquent mortgages and student loans, as elections loom in 2008.
Again and again, Wednesday, Democrats attempted to portray Bush, elected in 2000 as a "compassionate conservative" of being oblivious to the concerns and needs of ordinary Americans.
They also contrasted his unwillingness to back the children's healthcare bill, with the looming fight over the administration's pending request for 190 billion dollars in emergency funding for the Iraq and Afghan wars.
"The president has asked for an open-ended, open-wallet commitment to Iraq, and the American children get an empty stocking," said Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House of Representatives Democratic caucus.
"The president's priorities are completely out of whack," said veteran Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia.
Bush set the long smoldering row over a Democratic-led bill to finance an expansion in a State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by vetoing a bill which passed Congress with broad bipartisan support.
Critics say the legislation, which raises the tax on a pack of cigarettes to pay for a 35 billion dollar boost to the program, is a huge step towards a state-run healthcare system which they say is contrary to American values.
But backers of the plan said it would bring four million more vulnerable children under a healthcare umbrella.
Democrats view the fight as one on their territory, with the potential for political gains with congressional and presidential elections looming in 2008.
A Democracy Corps poll last month showed that American voters favored their position on the issue, two-to-one.
Democrats are also looking for more fertile political ground, after their thin majority and Bush's Republican firewall in the Senate doomed their repeated attempts to start bringing US troops home from the Iraq war.
They are under intense pressure to demonstrate concrete achievements to supporters who swept them to power in both the House and Senate in last November's elections.
On Iraq, the issue which more than any other powered their takeover of Congress, they have succeeded in forcing the White House to endure a punishing set of oversight hearings on the unpopular war.
But they have failed to substantially change war strategy and force Bush to set deadlines to get troops home, despite endless hours of debate and tense votes, dashing the hopes of grass roots supporters,
As they whipped up a new political campaign over the children's health care plan, Democratic leaders also unveiled a new effort Wednesday to tackle the sub-prime mortgage crisis, which has made thousands of Americans homeless.
Senator Chris Dodd, a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, compared the subprime drama to the 2005 Hurricane which battered New Orleans and the US Gulf coast, driving home an attack on a classic "pocket book" issue concerning voters.
"The crisis is the equivalent of a slow-motion, 50-state Katrina, taking people's homes one-by-one, devastating their lives, and destroying their communities," he said, raising the specter of a disaster which hammered the credibility of Bush and congressional Republicans.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid added: "Democrats are leading the way to do something about it."
Democrats say their plan would provide 200 million dollars in federal foreclosure prevention funding, which could help 130,000 families keep their homes.
Party leaders are also expected to stress Bush's refusal to expand federal funding of stem cell research, and to tackle legislation on global warming in the coming weeks, as they drive home their attack on domestic policy.
